A federal judge has found the Bush administration guilty of violating the Endangered Species Act and ordered the administration to issue a final listing decision for the polar bear by May 15, 2008. The administration is well beyond the legal deadline for a listing decision. The polar bear is threatened because global warming is causing its Arctic sea ice habitat to disappear. The Endangered Species Act requires the decision to be based solely on science. In September 2007 the U.S. Geological Survey predicted that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population would likely be extinct by 2050, including all polar bears within the United States.
See the April 29 press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.
See our April 21 post: “Bush climate speech aligns with disinformation campaign on stonewalling courts and environmental law”
See the April 2 Senate testimony of Kassie Siegel, Director of the Climate, Air, and Energy Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, which initiated the action that has brought the case to this point, for an excellent discussion of the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and their implications for the case of the polar bear.