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...echoing earlier arguments by the Bush Administration, Kempthorne repeatedly pointed out that even though the polar bear had become the first animal listed as threatened due to global warming, and despite a clear scientific consensus connecting the rise in man-made greenhouse gas emissions to rapid warming in the Arctic, in no way would the listing open the door to requiring reductions in U.S. emissions as a way to protect the bear. Kempthorne emphasized that the polar bear already received protection under the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and that its listing under the ESA would require no additional protection from...
...federal agency ruling on something that could impact a listed species needs to examine the effect that project might have on the animal. So a new coal plant somewhere far from the bears' habitat in Alaska could hypothetically come under review because the plant's greenhouse gas emissions would add to the warming effect hurting the bears. But Kempthorne specifically ruled out using the ESA listing for what he called "back door" climate policy. "The best scientific data available do not demonstrate significant impacts on individual polar bears from specific power plants, resource projects, government permits or other indirect activities...
...endangered species was usually threatened by specific human action in a limited geographical area - say, logging in the Pacific Northwest destroying the habitat of the spotted owl - that could be regulated easily by the government. But climate change is a global threat felt on a local level - greenhouse gas emissions anywhere in the world hurt the polar bear equally, and only by sharply reducing emissions globally can we protect the endangered species. That is perhaps beyond the scope of traditional environmental legislation...
Environmental activists have been complaining for a year that the climate crisis has gotten short shrift in this election. McCain's speech in Portland put it back on the agenda. The sight of a Republican standard-bearer stepping up with a solid plan for mandatory greenhouse gas reductions - the kind of plan Bush and the G.O.P. congressional leaders vociferously oppose - was heartening, even if McCain's policy is less than perfect. And when Obama and Clinton pounced on the plan (Obama called it "breathtaking" in its hypocrisy, since McCain has voted against alternative energy subsidies; Clinton dismissed...
...dropped from the vocabulary of most environmentalists, partially due to the controversies that surrounded state-mandated birth control in countries like China, with its one-child policy. Though simple arithmetic will tell you that the bigger the global population becomes, the harder it will be to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you rarely see the population connection made explicit in major environmental reports. "Environmentalists came to realize how complicated and sensitive this issue was," says Robert Engleman, vice-president for programs at the Worldwatch Institute, and the author of the new book More: Population, Nature and What Women Want. "People didn...