Feeds
The Obama administration said Thursday it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
An environmental group said Wednesday that it plans to sue the federal government to stop approving pesticides that end up in food eaten by polar bears.
The very survival of polar bears depends on how well humans fight climate change, which is the biggest threat facing the giant carnivores, the five nations bordering the Arctic said Thursday.
Puzzled Japanese zookeepers have cleared up a mystery over a lack of chemistry between a couple of polar bears as both turn out to be female, a Japanese zoo said Wednesday. Tsuyoshi, a four-year-old "male" polar bear, and his 11-year-old female partner, Kurumi, have been living together since June at the Kushiro Municipal Zoo in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The federal government will designate "critical habitat" for polar bears off Alaska's coast, a decision that could add restrictions to future offshore petroleum exploration or drilling.
Nine polar bears were observed in one day swimming in open ocean off Alaska's northwest coast, an increase from previous surveys that may indicate warming conditions are forcing bears to make riskier, long-distance swims to stable sea ice or land.
Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Bush administration's decision to let oil companies unintentionally harass or harm polar bears and walruses off the northwestern Alaska coast.
Environmental and animal rights groups are lining up to oppose a lawsuit that seeks to let American sport hunters again import hides of polar bears shot legally in Canada.
Recent actions concerning polar bears and Alaska oil operations.
Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.
Two conservation groups plan to sue to protect polar bears from petroleum exploration and drilling off Alaska's coast.
The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday.
The state of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, Gov. Sarah Palin announced Wednesday.
A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming.
A scientific committee that advises Canada's government on endangered species said Friday that climate change is a threat to the survival of the polar bear, but the species does not face extinction.
The Department of the Interior wants 10 more weeks to decide whether polar bears should be listed as threatened or endangered, a delay conservation groups condemned as tied to the transfer of offshore petroleum leases in one of the animals' two U.S. habitats.
Three conservation groups sued the Department of the Interior on Monday for missing a deadline on a decision to list polar bears as threatened because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. A decision was due Jan. 9, one year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the animals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
A decision on whether to protect Alaska's polar bears under the Endangered Species Act might not come before the government opens a major bear habitat to oil leases next week, although staff recommendations are completed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chief said Wednesday.
The directors of two Interior Department agencies said Thursday they're confident oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska can proceed without threatening polar bears that depend on the sea ice.
Three conservation groups notified the federal government Wednesday they intend to sue to get polar bears listed as a threatened species due to global warming.
Federal officials said Monday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming.
Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 — and the entire population gone from Alaska — because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.
Within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say......By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone.
Polar bears are in jeopardy and need stronger government protection because of melting Arctic sea ice related to global warming, the Bush administration said Wednesday.
Amid concerns that global warming is melting away the icy habitats where polar bears live, the federal government is reviewing whether they should be considered a threatened species.
Cuteness beyond our powers of imagination: Can Canada bring together Obama kids and baby polar bears?Word that Canadas new ambassador to Washington, former Manitoba premier Gary Doer, has invited President Barack Obama to send his kids to see Canadian polar bears creates the possibility of the biggest concentration of awww-inspiring photo-ops ever imagined.
Those who do not believe the Earth is warming have promoted the "Global Cooling" and the "Coming Ice Age" stories to discredit the scientific evidence.
Arctic ice cap 'to disappear in future summers'The arctic ice cap will no longer be covered in ice during summer months within the next 10 years.
Vanishing Arctic ice shows no sign of returningON BOARD COAST GUARD FLIGHT ABOVE BEAUFORT SEA (Reuters) - Out in the Arctic Ocean, about 200 miles (322 km ) north of the nearest human settlement, the future of the world's climate is written in the patterns of ice patches on the water's surface.
BBC - Earth News - Polar bear cub hitches a rideImportant information on polar bear behavior.
Polar bears run riot as ice meltsYou can almost hear Sarah Palin cocking her rifle.
Welcome To Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future And It Doesn't Work Chapters include: Barbecue The Polar Bears; Never Trust A Hippie; Destructive Diversity; The Great White Liberal Death Wish.
'Stress' is shrinking polar bearsPolar bears have shrunk over the last century, according to research.
Knut to be joined by Italian mateKnut the polar bear, who became a worldwide media sensation as a cub in 2007, will soon be joined in Berlin zoo by Gianna, a female companion originally from Italy.
Climate Change and Over Fishing Hit the Dutch Harbor and Bering Sea Fishing Industry - CNN.comIn Dutch Harbor the smell of fish wafting from the docks and the canneries is the smell of money. And lately, the town has smelled a lot less fishy.
Climate report devotes chapter to Alaska: Climate change | adn.comThe report, a compilation of current science, says annual temperatures have risen 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit in 50 years. Temperatures are projected to rise another 3.5 to 7 degrees by midcentury.
Weekend deadline looms on polar bear ruleA decision involving the iconic polar bear could determine whether protecting endangered species might also help save the earth from global warming.
Polar bears find love at first sightIt could have played out like a horrible blind date — with a capital "A" for awkward. But instead, polar bears Bill and Lara swam, played and bear-hugged on their first meeting at Lara's place, the Zoom Erlebniswelt zoo, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Polar bear fate seen to depend on emissions cuts OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is threatening polar bears as it melts their icy Arctic habitat, Norway's environment minister said on Monday.
Polar bears 'will not survive without urgent action' WWF, the conservation charity, said that the five countries which are home to the polar bear must commit to action on global warming to save the animal, which is reliant on the sea ice. Recent analysis by the US Geological Survey and World Conservation Union found that two-third …
Polar bears will not survive without action to tackle climate changePolar bears will not survive without action to tackle climate change and save their rapidly disappearing Arctic habitat, conservationists have warned Beautiful pictures of polar bears in this series!
"Belugas are not endangered," says Gov. PalinIn October, while Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was campaigning to be vice president, the federal government added the beluga whales in the state's Cook Inlet to the endangered species list.
Palin: Feds are Wrong, Beluga Whales and Polar Bears Need No ProtectionWithin five months of suing to keep polar bears off the U.S.
Estimating the Barents Sea polar bear subpopulation sizeWith the challenge of a warmer Arctic climate and significant habitat loss, it is a serious concern that several of the 19 existing subpopulations of polar bears still do not have reliable population size estimates.
Polar Bear Knut Opts For Meat Over Intruder A 37-year-old man climbed over a fence and into the enclosure of Berlin's celebrity polar bear on Monday, but escaped unharmed when zookeepers distracted Knut the bear with a piece of meat, police said.
Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks"The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears," according to Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Credit freeze bites as zoo tries to sell Knut the polar bearNo longer cute, no longer washing powder-white, Knut the celebrity bear has become the latest victim of the credit crunch.
Tributes pour in after oldest polar bear dies in Winnipeg - Debby we bear-ly knew ye!The 42-year-old polar bear was born in the Russian Arctic in 1966 and came to Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo as an orphan a year later. The bear's health had been failing in recent months and she was euthanized Monday as her organs began to fail.
World's oldest polar bear diesThe world's oldest polar bear, orphaned as a cub in the cold Russian north and raised in captivity, has died aged 42 after thrilling millions of visitors to a Canadian zoo, officials said.
Log In | Register
