The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Washington, D.C., states that the federal analysis that led to the polar being being listed did not properly consider the survival of the polar bear through previous periods of warming. They called the conclusion that polar bears would be endangered within the “foreseeable future,” or 45 years, as defined by the Fish and Wildlife Service, an arbitrary number.
There is a person who’s columns I regularly read, because I often find it fun to disagree with him. This person is George Will, conservative commentator and phony-baloney. I call him a phony-baloney, because it seems to fit with the old-fashioned bow tie he sometimes chooses to wear on television programs like Sunday’s political talk show on ABC, This Week. Why is he a phony-baloney? Well, most of all because he is one of the few members of the mainstream press who still perpetuates the myth that global warming might not exist, even though approximately 99% of the scientific community agrees that it is occuring and that it is most likely a phenomenon urged on by the human race. My primary case in point against phony-baloney, is his attack today in The Washington Post on the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.
With their recent addition to the US Endangered Species Act list, polar bears have sent a wake-up call to water managers in South Florida.
Added to the ESA list on Wednesday, the polar bears will finally receive a measure of official attention and protection, albeit a little late. However, joining the environmental awareness last Wednesday, South Florida water managers agreed to spend a year looking at how the melting ice that is doing in the polar bear, may be a similarly dangerous problem for South Florida.
Or, more evidence for the skeptics. Thanks, as always, to Brad and Peter. Check out more of their work at The Green House.
It was just over a month ago that I last wrote about the fate of the polar bears. The US Fish and Wildlife Service had just announced that they needed more time to determine whether the beautiful creatures should be put on the endangered species list. Conservationists were up in arms, and many were pointing to Bush’s desire to sell off parts of the Alaskan coast for oil and gas exploration [...]
This post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense.
All year long we’ve been monitoring developments in climate science, and posting about the important new developments. I thought now would be a good time to look back over 2007 and summarize what we’ve learned.
Here are ten noteworthy science stories we covered in 2007:
1. The Sun is (really, really) not responsible for global warming. This paper wasn’t breaking news, just an extremely thorough review of the science showing why the sun can’t be blamed for global warming. The folks over at RealClimate said it best: “That’s a coffin with so many nails in it already that the hard part is finding a place to hammer in a new one.”
2. American Southwest climate is becoming drier. Global warming has caused a long-term shift in rain patterns. An author of the study said, “You can’t call it a drought anymore, because it’s going over to a drier climate. No one says the Sahara is in drought.”
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