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...deliberation, another four months in overtime and multiple lawsuits from environmental groups, the Bush Administration today listed the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). But it may not matter much. At a press conference in Washington, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that Arctic sea ice - vital for the polar bears' survival - was clearly receding, and that scientific studies by the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) estimated some 30% decline in sea ice by mid-century. (A study by the USGS released last September projected a two-thirds decline in the world's polar bear population...
...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 increasing oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, noting that it was sea ice loss, not the energy industry, that is threatening the bear. At the same time, it's clear that there is nothing, under the ESA at least, that the Bush Administration intends to do to slow down warming and reduce sea ice loss. "This listing will not stop global climate change...
...That seems disingenuous: more emissions mean more warming, more warming means less sea ice, less sea ice means less polar bears. Green groups are likely to challenge Kempthorne's ruling in court, so the struggle over the polar bear is far from over. But the Administration's hair-splitting highlights just how difficult it will be to adapt existing environmental legislation to protect species in a warming future. In the past, an 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...
Alexander Koval, 46, figured his boarding house for a gold mine. The two-storied building with 23 double rooms is only a short walk from the Black Sea coast in Nizhneimeretinskaya Bukhta, a town just 28 miles (45 km) down the shoreline from Sochi - the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics. But Koval's reckoning of future wealth turned sour early this year when it started looking as if a government decree requisitioning his property for Olympic development could render his home and source of income all but worthless. "The prospect of confiscation has killed the real estate market...
...President's first stop is Israel for the country's 60th anniversary celebrations. While there, he will also do some tourism (including a visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls) and discussions on the peace process with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He then flies to Saudi Arabia Friday for talks with King Abdullah at his ranch outside Riyadh. Bush will press the Saudi king on oil prices, though he's already played down the possibility of much change. He finishes the trip Saturday and Sunday in Egypt at a summit of Arab leaders, where Iran and the peace process will...