The administration of US President Barack Obama, which promised a sharp break from the previous administration on global warming, declared on Friday it would stick with the previous government’s stand against expanding protection for polar bears, ruling out an approach that would have opened a broad new attack on climate change.
To the dismay of environmentalists, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar refused to rescind a rule from the administration of former US president George W. Bush that says actions that threaten the polar bear’s survival cannot be considered when safeguarding the iconic mammal if they occur outside the bear’s Arctic home.
The rule was aimed at heading off the possibility that the bear’s survival could be cited by opponents of power plants and other facilities that produce carbon dioxide, a leading pollutant blamed for global warming.
The Endangered Species Act requires that a threatened or endangered species must have its habitat protected.
Environmentalists say that in the case of the polar bear, the biggest threat comes from pollution — mainly carbon dioxide from faraway power plants, factories and cars — that is warming the Earth and melting Arctic sea ice.
Salazar said global warming was “the single greatest threat” to the bear’s survival, but that he did not believe the federal law that protects animals, plants and fish should be used to address climate change.
“The Endangered Species Act is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with what is a global issue, and that is the issue of global warming,” said Salazar, echoing much the same view of his Republican predecessor, Dirk Kempthorne, who had declared the polar bear officially threatened and in need of protection under the federal species law.
Kempthorne at the same time issued the “special rule” that limited the scope of the bear’s protection to actions within its Arctic home.
The iconic polar bear — some 25,000 of the mammals can be found across the Arctic region from Alaska to Greenland — has become a symbol of the potential ravages of climate change.
Scientists say while the bear population has more than doubled since the 1960s, as many as 15,000 could be lost in the coming decades because of the loss of Arctic sea ice, a key element of its habitat.
Environmentalists and some members of Congress had strongly urged Salazar to rescind the regulation, arguing the bear is not being given the full protection required under the species law.
Others, including most of the business community, argue that making the bear a reason for curtailing greenhouse gases thousands of kilometers from its home would cause economic chaos.
Reaction to Salazar’s decision on Friday was sharply divided.
Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin hailed the decision as a “clear victory for Alaska” because it removes the link between bear protection and climate change and should help North Slope oil and gas development.
Both of Alaska’s senators and its only House member also praised the decision and rejected claims the bear won’t be protected.
Senator James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Environment Committee, who does not believe in global warming, applauded Salazar “for making the right call and applying a commonsense approach to the Endangered Species Act” and climate.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS