Global Warming & The Endangered Hermaphroditic Polar Bears
Polar Bears & The Global Warming Fallacy
Polar bears are in deep trouble because of global warming and other factors and deserve federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration is proposing Wednesday.Pollution and overhunting also threaten their existence. Greenland and Norway have the most polar bears, but almost 5,000 live mainly in Alaska and travel to Canada and Russia.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne plans to announce later Wednesday that polar bears should be listed as a "threatened" species on the government list of imperiled species, a department official confirmed Wednesday. The "endangered" category is reserved for species more likely to become extinct.
Such a decision would prevent the U.S. government from allowing any activity that could jeopardize polar bears or the sea ice where they live. Thinner sea ice reduces the amount of food polar bears can find, including ice seals that are their main prey.
Environmentalists hope that invoking the Endangered Species Act protections eventually might provide impetus for the government to cut back on its emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases that are warming the atmosphere.
The proposed listing also marks a potentially significant departure for the administration from its cautious rhetoric about the effects of global warming.
President Bush’s steadfast refusal to go along with United Nations-brokered mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief global warming gas, has contributed to international tension between the United States and other nations.
Polar bears, an iconic and cold-dependent animal, are dropping in numbers and weight in the Arctic. In July, the House approved a U.S.-Russia treaty to help protect polar bears from overhunting and other threats to their survival.
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A little over a year ago, three environmental groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace — filed suit to force such a proposal from Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species. Fish and Wildlife officials have been reviewing the status of polar bears more than two years.
They were pleased by the decision Wednesday.
"This is a victory for the polar bear, and all wildlife threatened by global warming," Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday. "There is still time to save polar bears but we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately."
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A team of scientists from Canada, Alaska, Denmark and Norway is sounding the alarm about the flame retardants, known as polybrominated diphenyls, or PBDEs, saying that significant deposits have recently been found in the fatty tissues of polar bears, especially in eastern Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard islands.
Studies are still being carried out on what impact the chemicals might be having on the bears, but tests on laboratory animals such as mice indicate that their effects can be considerable, attacking the sex and thyroid glands, motor skills and brain function.
There is also evidence that compounds similar to the PBDEs have contributed to a surprisingly high rate of hermaphroditism in polar bears. About one in 50 female bears on Svalbard has both male and female sex organs, a phenomenon scientists link directly to the effects of pollution.
"The Arctic is now a chemical sink," declared Colin Butfield, a campaign leader for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, which last month indicated that killer whales in the Arctic were also suffering from elevated levels of contamination with fire retardants as well as other man-made compounds. "Chemicals from products that we use in our homes every day are contaminating Arctic wildlife."
The pollutants are carried northwards from industrialised regions of the US and western Europe on currents and particularly on northbound winds. Contaminated moisture often condenses on arriving in the cold Arctic climes and is then deposited, ready to enter the food chain.
For several years, scientists have observed how the concentrations of the pollutants are magnified as they ascend the food chain, from plankton to fish and then to marine mammals such as seals, whales and polar bears. The new study, first published last month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, shows, for instance, that one compound was 71 times more concentrated in polar bears than in the seals they normally feed upon.
Conservationists are especially alarmed by these new findings because of the already fragile condition of the Arctic polar bear populations, some of which could be devastated before the end of the century. As warming temperatures erode their hunting grounds, polar bears in Canada’s western Hudson Bay region, for instance, saw their numbers slide from 1,100 in 1995 to only 950 in 2004.
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What will the environmentalists do next to perpetuate the "Global Warming" fallacy?
This is a New Year Weekend OTB & Linkfest for Dec., 29, 2006-Jan. 1, 2007.
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Pissed off is an understatement…
What in the HELL does CNN think they are doing putting their “sniper video” up for video on demand? Do they have that little respect for our troops and their families?
29 Dec 06 at 10:11 am
Jon Swift’s Predictions for 2007
Last year I made eight predictions for the year 2006 and nearly half of them came true, a better average than most psychics. Here are my predictions for 2007.
29 Dec 06 at 11:11 am
Girl Power! Christmas is about Mary, too… Dumb
Who can stand reading the news, beyond the headlines here at Dumb Ox, that is?
Saddam to be justly executed, and Libs all worked up about how far we’ve become just like him… yeah, right. The usual moral equivalency utopian bleck. You couldn …
29 Dec 06 at 12:19 pm
aw great post and ty so much for the link!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
29 Dec 06 at 2:54 pm
Saddam executed for crimes against humanity
Fox News reporting that al Arabiya announced that Saddam has been executed.
The evil dictator-the butcher of Baghdad-finally is executed for his crimes against humanity. In Dearborn, Michigan Iraqi?s there went to their Mosque?s and prayed for hi…
29 Dec 06 at 10:33 pm
Would you have fired Eric Anderson?
Here are the details, and you can decide if you would have fired Eric Anderson.
Anderson, a 47-year-old real estate investor in Milwaukee, has been a beer vendor at Lambeau Field for the past 20 years, the last 18 in Section 132 in the southwest c…
29 Dec 06 at 11:26 pm
Stuck,
I’m having problems sending you a tb… Any suggestions?
30 Dec 06 at 2:37 am
John Mc Cain as Cpt Planet
I got a letter from John Mc Cain today. My first thought was he wanted money for ‘08, but boy was i wrong. I nearly tossed it , after all, I won’t be voting for Mc Cain in the primary,
30 Dec 06 at 3:44 pm
Saddam Hanged, Ford Honored
In the same week that we lost Gerald Ford to natural causes, Saddam Hussien was hanged by his own people. An interesting contrast if you will, Ford buried with full honors, with six days of observance and thousands of well
30 Dec 06 at 3:45 pm
9/11 Conspitracy Nutjob Interviews Danny Bonaduce
Sign me up for the Danny Bonaduce fan club, he really lets the little traitor have it! Now the conspiracy wacko’s are sending him death threats. Former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce is terrified for his life after speaking out
30 Dec 06 at 3:47 pm
The Dead Dictator: Saddam Hussein
I am not going to criticize Iraq’s trial of Saddam because each country has there own judicial processes and it is not up to us, here in America, to be the judges of whether a trial by the Iraqi’s was “fair”
30 Dec 06 at 4:50 pm
A reminder of just who Saddam?s victims were
It is appalling that in all the media frenzy any person of stature or not would question the fairness of Saddam Hussein?s trial. For you sympathizers here is a reminder of just who Saddam?s victims were.
30 Dec 06 at 7:47 pm
Happy New Year.
31 Dec 06 at 12:47 pm
Last Open Trackback of the Year
This post is an open trackback. Make a link here, (the Italian version of this blog), then a trackback to this URL and, sooner or later, a link to your post will be added at the end of this one. Other infos here. Happy New Year to everyone!
31 Dec 06 at 4:12 pm
Happy New Year!
I hope that all who review their 2006 will find it on balance, to be positive and I wish all of you a blessed 2007.
1 Jan 07 at 3:46 pm
NY Times screws its readers
The so-called “paper of record” has been anything but for some time now. The extreme bias that issued forth from it’s front page, turning into a defacto
1 Jan 07 at 4:07 pm
NY Times screws its readers
The so-called “paper of record” has been anything but for some time now. The extreme bias that issued forth from it’s front page, turning into a defacto
1 Jan 07 at 4:15 pm
NY Times screws its readers
The so-called “paper of record” has been anything but for some time now. The extreme bias that issued forth from it’s front page, turning into a defacto
1 Jan 07 at 4:16 pm
MON JAN 1 Storm Troopers Take Rose Parade, UFO Over Chicago, Keeping Up with the Joneses!
THE FORCE IS WITH US!
(Cue the Indiana Jones theme, please)
1 Jan 07 at 7:01 pm
New Years Open Post
Over the past several days it has occurred to me that the Msm in all of their retarded glory have once again showed how totally screwed up they are in the priority department. The media coverage of the death of…
1 Jan 07 at 7:11 pm
A silly mistake by CNN
Yet quite funny considering
1 Jan 07 at 9:52 pm
New Year Traffic Jam
Create your own linkfest below.
To join in, choose a post from your blog to highlight, edit it to add a link to this post, and then send a TrackBack. If your blog doesn’t automatically generate one, use the Send TrackBack feature below. For m…
2 Jan 07 at 10:38 am
New Year Traffic Jam
Create your own linkfest below.
To join in, choose a post from your blog to highlight, edit it to add a link to this post, and then send a TrackBack. If your blog doesn’t automatically generate one, use the Send TrackBack feature below. For m…
2 Jan 07 at 10:38 am
The Most Wonderful Time of The Year
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Forget all that holiday commercialism - and honoring the Lord is not restricted to the month of December. I’m talking about the time leading up to the primaries. Later on, we may grumble about wh…
2 Jan 07 at 1:42 pm
Can You Point Out The Mistake In This Picture
Can you imagine if Fox had done this?
(linked to ALLAHPUNDIT)
Link Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, Perri Nelson’s Website, Mark My Words, DragonLady’s World, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, 123 …
2 Jan 07 at 2:28 pm
Beltway Traffic Jam
Create your own linkfest below.
To join in, choose a post from your blog to highlight, edit it to add a link to this post, and then send a TrackBack. If your blog doesn’t automatically generate one, use the Send TrackBack feature below. For m…
2 Jan 07 at 4:37 pm
Saddam Hussein’s Final Exit
I am who I am, and I take no pleasure in the death of Saddam Hussein. Killing vermin is a job, not an art. Layla of The Hill Chronicles has the reaction of the New York Times to Saddam’s death….
24 Feb 07 at 7:45 pm