Posted on 08/06/2008 9:47:27 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
The state of Alaska has sued the U.S. government, arguing that listing polar bears as a threatened species will hurt Alaskan oil and gas exploration, fisheries and tourism.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, seeks the withdrawal of a May 14 decision to list the big Arctic bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because climate change is melting their sea ice habitat.
"We believe that the ... decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available," Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in a statement.
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals. The U.S. Geological Survey reported last year that two-thirds of the world's polar bears -- some 16,000 -- could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true.
In putting the white bears on the threatened list, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the planetary warming that has damaged the polar bears' habitat.
However, the decision does nothing to address climate change, and Kempthorne said any real solution to that underlying problem is up to the world's economies.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Alaska should secede from the Union. They have the natural resourses to support their ‘new’ country.
I was sitting there adding up the numbers. If they left the union...they’d end up in ten years being one of the top ten nations on earth (if OIL held at $200 a barrel like some folks thought for the next decade ahead). Of any state in the union....this is the one that actually comes out ahead and better off than the other 49. But as we know...this is pure fantasy to suggest it leave the union.
If they did, I'd strongly consider moving there.
You and me both..
The decision to list the Polar Bears as endangered has nothing to do with the bears, it is all about stopping oil drilling, mining, etc.
Exactly and can’t believe Kempthorne went along with it.
Duh. That was actually the whole point of the listing.
You are so right. The environmental movement always has been about crippling capitalism, except for the leaders. If one doubts that, look at Al Gore. For further information, take a look at his father, who is well known for his ties to Soviet Agent Armand Hammer, and the money funneled to him by Hammer. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_34_17/ai_78334926
Maybe it’s time for an “Alaska Tea Party.” I’d join.
Alaska should secede from the Union. They have the natural resourses to support their ‘new’ country.
I wish our state could!
If you’d like to be on or off this Upper Midwest/outdoors/rural list please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.
I would like Louisiana to secede from the Union - the United Parishes of Louisiana, if you will. We will stop people at the state line if they are a leftist liberal they will be fed to our alligator population.
Don’t take it out on the polar bears. The problem lies with our spineless and uninformed politicians.
Yeah but they are using the polar bears potential “extinction” as the reason not to drill! St killing them off and you’ll see enviorMENTAList change their mind on drilling. Cruel, but if we don’t get them, they will get us!
“Alaska should secede from the Union. They have the natural resourses to support their ‘new’ country.”
I will be turning in my USSRA Citizenship if they do. I will gladly move to Alaska and help them found their country on the ideals the former USA was founded upon. And fight off enemies both foreign and domestic :-)
If they did that I'd likely be on the first plane there.
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