Governor: Alaska to challenge polar bear listing

[orleans]

Source: Associated Press

By DAN JOLING – 1 hour ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday.

She and other Alaska elected officials fear a listing will cripple oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off the state's northern and northwestern coasts.

Palin argued that there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said.

Climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice, the main habitat of polar bears, during summers are unreliable, said Palin, a Republican.



Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9NGJ0_eVkxqgpEFC6RMHVlvT9qwD90QBMFG0

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more at link

[frogcycle]

1. set her adrift on an ice floe

[Arctic Dave]

2. You might as well cross out the SOA and write Shell.

They are the ones who really want it overturned.

[earthboundmisfit]

3. She's on McCain's short list for VP

isn't she?

[Arctic Dave]

5. She has stated that she has no interest in the VP slot.

Can you blame her?

[badgervan]

7. Not After Dissing the Bears

I think any national political aspirations she might have had just went up in smoke.

[JeanGrey]

9. Why is it "dissing"? The Polar Bears do not seem to be in

danger, and their numbers are vastly up. Why would they be put on an endangered list if they aren't endangered? I'm not getting this.

[Judi Lynn]

10. You may as well take time to read the article.

"Polar bear researchers fear recent effects of the loss of sea ice on Alaska polar bear populations. A 2006 study by the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that far fewer polar bear cubs in the Beaufort Sea were surviving and that adult males weighed less and had smaller skulls than those captured and measured two decades previously — trends similar to observations in Canada's western Hudson Bay before a population drop.

A U.S. Geological Survey study completed last year as part of the petition process predicted polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050."

[JeanGrey]

18. As I thought - they are placing them on the endangered list

on a prediction.

[roguevalley]

17. you are completely wrong. completely. they are going to go out

fast. being on the list may slow it down but they are doomed. they can't swim fifty miles between floes. they drown, their cubs drown, its fucked.
You need to read up. Sarah Palin was dead to me when she ignored the aerial wolf ban, the sow, but this is beyond the pale. she is ignoring the people and showing her true fascist self.

[NewEnglandGirl]

20. Actually

they are being put on a "threatened list" which is one step below endangered. This is because of the loss of sea ice.

[KamaAina]

19. Well, at least she's got Colbert's backing

the Greatest Living American is a noted ursophobe. Bears, polar and otherwise, regularly appear on his "Threatdown!"

[Barrett808]

4. I wonder if an ice-pack free arctic this summer would sway her?

Probably not.

[bluesmail]

6. Does that mean that there will be NO drilling in ANWR as

long as the polar bear is on the endangered list? :shrug: Probably.

[struggle4progress]

8. Her major initiative is a corporate welfare package: the "Alaska Gasline Inducement Act" would

give $500 billion to whoever builds her pipeline

Her object is to maintain the flow of oil/gas rebates to Alaskans (in the form of state issued debit cards &c&c)

Having to protect polar bears might be a bit of damper on all this, which she started pushing hard in early April

[Dammit Ann]

11. Yeah, fuck the bears, we need oil.

Hell, we took out a country, why not a species? Who gives a fuck? We have ZOOS, don't we? Quit yer cryin', them's just aminals.

:sarcasm:, for the sensitive.

[ohio2007]

13. That would include the citizens of Alaska that get a yearly rebate check from the oil

Sounds like a social program that big buisness would love to see stopped as they hate to share the oil wealth.

[ohio2007]

12. when oil goes over $200 bbl and $10 gas, I think people will accept the notion

we must all pay for global warming and the alleged extinction of polar bears http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/NEWS02/805210311/-1/NEWS05
Make me wonder if OPEC is behind this global warming research ;)
Well,
the elephant seals off California need to be studied to block offshore drilling.... Revisit the gulf coast also. There isn't going to be independence from foreign oil anytime in the future....despite the increase in the # of polar bears.

Force the oil companies to spend their profits opening up cheaper US oil sources for GODS SAKES !

[Steerpike]

14. We are not going to achieve Independence from foreign oil.

With environmentalists achieving these successes over oil development we have to accept the skyrocketing cost of fossil fuels. We can't pressure oil companies to do anything. They are too powerful. If anything we should pressure automobile companies to manufacture electric/hybrid cars. We should pressure the federal government to subsidize sales of fuel efficient models.
As a society we need to get away from gasoline powered transportation. And so,the onus is on us to pressure the automobile manufacturers to permanently change to non carbon powered product.

[cstanleytech]

15. What does it prevent

development wise with the oil?
Does it totally prevent it or just make it so they need to take more precautions which will cost them a bit more money?

[Steerpike]

16. at this point

it does not affect anything.