In June, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan sided with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in finding that polar bears were appropriately listed as threatened under federal law. The state, pro-development groups and even hunting organizations had been seeking to have the bears taken off the list while conservation groups wanted even more protections, asking that the bears be declared endangered.
The agency also has designated more than 187,000 square miles of Arctic coastal habitat as critical for the bears' survival. That makes it more difficult for oil companies and others wanting to do development projects in the Arctic to get necessary permits.
We the undersigned would like to bring the following to your attention.
Today’s world problems of overpopulation, big corporations and land grabbing, are taking its toll on wildlife everywhere. Poaching is killing off the elephant and the rhino. Virtually gone is the blue whale, overfishing is putting a strain on food sources for certain countries.
It is our obligation to protect the wildlife that remains. With global warming, the polar ice cap is melting. Polar bears are having to go farther afield to look for food, leaving their young unprotected. Many are not surviving. With the rapid reduction of polar ice, how could the bear population be increasing? Although many say the population has grown, with loss of their territory, how long before they become victims of human/bear conflict. How long before they start being killed for coming into populated areas, which they are doing already with disastrous results for the bear.
Alaska and the Northwest Territories are 2 of the few real “wilderness” areas left, all that the polar bear has. The oil companies cannot guarantee that they will not have an environmental impact on the region, the BP oilspill comes to mind. Hunting cannot be regulated to guarantee that the population will not be decimated. Development will take away their space and end up with the human/bear conflicts. This must not be allowed to happen.
Thank you for taking the time to take these issues under consideration.
