Not Much Help for the Polar Bear. Editorial, NYTimes, May 18, 2008. "Boxed into a corner by the courts and its own scientists, the Bush administration agreed last week to place the polar bear under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. The decision was the clearest official acknowledgment that the bear, its hunting grounds diminished by shrinking summer ice, is seriously at risk... It is not clear that the decision is much of a victory for the bears. The listing appears to offer only modest new protections. United States law already bars the killing of bears. The listing will also prohibit the importing of hides or other trophies from bears killed in Canada. It does nothing to address the gravest threats to the bears' survival: oil and gas drilling and global warming... Using the Endangered Species Act to shape climate policy, he said, would be 'wholly inappropriate.' The act -- designed to protect specific animals from chain saws, bulldozers and, yes, oil rigs -- probably should not have to carry the burden of solving global warming. But President Bush has denied the problem for so long, refusing to offer serious remedies... It is little wonder that people are tempted to grab at any lever. This leaves the polar bear much as before: living precariously in a changing world, and facing the added stresses of exploratory drilling with no real protection."
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