Many environmental activists have opposed the Olympics for the role they claim it plays in environmental degradation, release of carbon emissions through the construction process and the displacement of animals from their habitat. Whether you’re of this viewpoint or not, you will be happy to know that the Olympics hopes to bring environmental benefits by increasing the world’s knowledge about climate change in Northern areas of Canada and the impact upon the polar bear.

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Now that the polar bear is about to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, the state of Alaska is taking legal action to challenge the decision.

Following the announcement that threatened polar bears are set to receive over 128 million acres of critical habitat designation, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell and Attorney General Dan Sullivan responded by taking legal action against federal protection of polar bears.

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Palin is said to be against the decision because of the effects it may have on oil and gas developments and the expansion of the city’s port. (The area happens to be a mature oil-producing basin.)

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A 16 foot high sculpture of an iceberg featuring a stranded polar bear and its cub was launched on the River Thames in London today to mark the launch of a new natural history TV channel.

A team of 15 artists spent two months constructing the 20′ x 20′, three thousand pound, 100% recyclable structure which was launched in Greenwich, South East London at 6:30 this morning. The sculpture traveled 7.5 miles up the Thames before stopping beside Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament for a photo op.

>>Watch video of the polar bears on the Thames

The sculpture was specially commissioned to mark the launch of the new Natural History Television channel Eden, which starts today and features programming including Planet Earth and Attenborough Explores Our Fragile World.

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However, now that the dust is (sort of) starting to settle, some more sober analysis of the Vice Presidential candidate’s record on renewable energy is starting to emerge.

For starters, as Alaskan Governor, there are signs that she may have paid more than lip service to her supposed support for alternatives to oil. She promised green campaigners that she would put together a comprehensive plan on renewables, and even appointed someone to head up the mission. Beyond this though, there has been little genuine conviction or leadership in support of the sector. In fact, as the summary below reveals, her record on the issue is decidedly shaky:

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Coming up in a couple of weeks is the International Furniture Fair in Valencia Spain, Sept. 23-27. There, from the NEL Collective (produced by Nanimarquina), will be the Global Warming Rug. The rug (shown above) features a blue sea spotted by a lonely ice floe with a polar bear riding out his isolated, floating fate.

Source: designboom.com

But this bold move may just very well be a bad move for the environment she might end up overseeing if McSame McCain and Palin win the election in November.

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The Center for Biological Conservation was the group who filed a petition on February 17, 2005, asking that the polar bear be listed under the ESA. They have followed the landmark decision approving this petition by adding the three seals for consideration as species under threat. The “landmark” aspect of these decisions is that the polar bear was the first animal to be recognized as threatened as a direct result of climate change.

“While the polar bear may be the first Arctic species listed under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming, it will, unfortunately, not be the last,” says Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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Polar bear populations have been declining over the past few years, attributable, some claim, to man-made global warming. Al Gore helped the plight of the polar bear by including in his award winning An Inconvenient Truth a cartoon of a polar bear swimming, unable to find land. The cartoon was inspired by evidence that some polar bears had drowned – a hitherto unforeseen occurrence.

So it is good news that on Wednesday the Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced that the polar bear has finally been listed as “threatened” under the ESA. However he was certain to ensure in his announcement that the decision should not be “misused” to regulate global climate change.

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Her name means “snowflake.” Since her birth in December, photos and videos from the zoo have been overloading the public with cuteness, stirring up “Flocke fever.”

Still, no one outside the zoo staff had ever seen Flocke in person. This week, she made her first live public appearance.

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Speaking at the Alaska Forum on the Environment, Ignatius Rigo, a University of Washington climatologist, believes that this summer will see the sea-ice pushed in to the North Atlantic Ocean by a combination of global warming and cyclical climate patterns.

According to Rigo, the remnants of the old sea ice that – thanks to their age – are stronger and thicker, are slowly being pushed in to the North Atlantic where they have no chance of surviving. “The buoys are streaming out,” Rigor said, referring to the markers used to monitor the flushing of ice into the North Atlantic.

The ice that is currently covering the Arctic is not the thick kind that could withstand such temperature and climate shifts as are taking place. Where in 1989 at least 80% of the ice in the Arctic was at least 10 years old, today that percent is down to 3.

So, “Have we passed the tipping point?” he asked. “It’s hard to see how the system may come back.”

This obviously presents us with a new shipping route through the area, but the fact that people are viewing this as a plus is just the epitome of why humanity is going to hell in a hand-basket.

When you consider that one of this planet’s most beautiful animals – the polar bear – is at risk of being wiped off the face of our planet thanks to these ice shortages, and people view shipping as a plus, you somewhat have to just shake your head and wonder; how did humanity get to this self-absorbed piousness that pits themselves above anything or anyone else.

Photo Courtesy of wili_hybrid via Flickr

AP via MSNBC - Too late to keep Arctic sea ice from vanishing?

The expert cinematography of Arctic Tale captures an age-old tragicomedy with a new and unsettling twist. Ardent lovers, defiant youth, unmitigated kindness, and sex jostle with death, solitude, violent battles, and the turbulent upheaval of a mighty and ancient kingdom. The drama unfolds around a polar bear and a walrus—children of rival families in a strange and beautiful world of unicorned whales and a cold sun. What we as an audience do not see until the movie’s end is how intimately we are entwined in the plot.

The film makes no overt mention of global warming until the very end. By sidestepping the link between this phenomenon and mankind, the film smartly avoids the emotional recoil of those who still have difficulty coming to terms with our species’ influence on our environment. Rather than confront the issue from the human perspective, the film simply documents the dramatic effects of warming in the far North. Only after the film closes does the focus again return to the human world with suggestions about how each of us can reduce our impact on the climate.

Except for our role in climate change, the rest of the film is devoid of any human presence. The filmmakers are quite successful at documenting a world that is largely unknown to most people. They share some of the most intimate moments of the film’s protagonists. We are taken beneath the water to see Seela nursing at her mother’s belly and inside of a polar bear’s cave, where Nanu bears cubs of her own. If we judge the movie solely on the merit and skill of its documentary filmmakers, it lives up in every way to the masterpiece, March of the Penguins. Most of the soundtrack also sets a solitary, sentimental, almost indie feeling that is perfect for a film “at the edge of the world.”

However, instead of recreating the epic drama of March of the Penguins, this film was marketed toward a much younger audience. Queen Latifah’s playful, sassy narrating tone resonates with the “cute and cuddly” theme of the movie poster, which was clearly aimed at drawing parents and children. Those who come with the expectations seeing another March of the Penguins or An Inconvenient Truth may be disappointed to find a younger target demographic.

Still, making stories of the natural world accessible to children is perhaps the best way to instill in them the importance of caring about our impact on the environment. The success of theatricals like The Lion King and television stars like Jeff Corwin are hopeful signs that the genre of Nature-Adventure will soon open wide enough to appeal to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. By more regularly glimpsing the natural world, we are able in some sense to remember our part in it.

The magic of the movies is that we leave the theater feeling like the hero or the heroine of the film. As the credits roll and we stand up from our plush, popcorn-scented seats, we take with us the intrepid bravery of Indiana Jones or the humble tenacity of Frida Kahlo. But rarely do we leave the theater feeling like a polar bear or a walrus!

I left the theater on a chill, cloudy Seattle afternoon. The shifting of loose brick under my feet transported me back to the arctic, where thin ice was crumbling beneath thick paws.