Alaska's polar bears have moved one big step closer to receiving protection under the Endangered Species Act.

A federal judge just ordered the Bush Administration to stop dragging its feet and decide by May 15 whether it will safeguard America's polar bears from the threat of extinction due to rising temperatures and rapidly melting sea ice.

It took a lawsuit by NRDC, the Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace to force this latest breakthrough. The court ruled that the Bush Administration had violated the law by missing its January deadline and then proceeding to delay for months more.

While the Administration stalled for time, it rammed through oil and gas leases in some of the polar bear's most important Arctic habitat.

By ordering a May 15 deadline for this decision, the federal courts have thrown polar bears an important lifeline.

That's because the Endangered Species Act requires this momentous decision to be made solely on the best available science -- not politics -- and the science is absolutely clear that the polar bear urgently needs protection from the impacts of global warming.

With reports of polar bears starving and drowning...snowy dens collapsing on mother bears and their newborn cubs...and populations in decline, there is no longer any doubt that the climate crisis is taking a terrible toll on these magnificent creatures.

But despite the iron-clad evidence, there is no assurance that the Bush Administration will do the right thing on May 15. Given President Bush's pro-polluter agenda and relentless attacks on wildlife, it is still possible that the Interior Department will deny protection for the polar bear.

I have no idea what to do with this information.

bears

bear information...FYI
for enlightenment...what can u do about the bear situation....i will let u know...

No one is "pro-polluter." Bush may be pro-business/industry, but no one WANTS pollution. Pollution is simply an unfortunate byproduct of manufacturing.

Not sure why I'm so whiny today...sorry.

If Greenpeace and the rest of the environazis wanted to do something constructive, why don't they go to Dufar and protest the slaughter of humans taking place there, or go to Tibet and protect the people there from the Chinese. With the world teetering on the brink of WWIII bears just don't seem to be a real high priority.

i hate bg bush what a loser

OMG! Tell me how we are going to protect bears from melting ice. It's the SUN PEOPLE. It's not due to anything we have control over, unless you have a temperature controller for the sun.

We could spend several trillion dollars on the largest refrigeration system in history!

I think I'll apply for a grant.
If the Democrats win maybe I can get some of the Pork!!

less people means more space for wildlife...go environazis!!!!

I vote we start with you. How much room for wildlife would be created if we sent you to the sun on a space elevator to try and cool it off? j/k

if we sent u, meaning me???/to the sun on a space elevator? have u been watching 3rd rock from the sun or what?