‘...The CBD had petitioned to list walrus as threatened or endangered because of increased CO2 levels. The article makes the bold claim, “Were it not for the dramatic decline in the sea ice, the young walruses at Icy Cape most likely would be alive on the ice and not dead on a beach,” said WWF [World Wildlife Fund] biologist Geoff York.”
This is the same argument used for the polar bear to be put on the endangered species list even though there are more than 50,000 now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear
On 14 May 2008 the U.S. Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, citing the melting of Arctic sea ice as the primary threat to the polar bear.[153]
Upon listing the polar bear under the Endangered species act, the Department of the Interior immediately issued a statement that the listing could not be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions,[153] although some policy analysts believe that the Endangered Species Act can be used to restrict the issuing of federal permits for projects that would threaten the polar bear by increasing greenhouse gas emissions.[153] Environmental groups have pledged to go to court to have the Endangered Species Act interpreted in such a way.[153] On 8 May 2009, the new administration of Barack Obama announced that it would continue the policy.[158] On 4 August 2008, the state of Alaska sued U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, seeking to reverse the listing of the polar bear as a threatened species out of concern that the listing would adversely affect oil and gas development in the state. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said that the listing was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available, a view rejected by polar bear experts.[159] In March 2013, a United States Appeals Court ruling upheld the “threatened” status of the polar bear against a challenge led by the State of Alaska.[160]