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As bureaucrats debate the merits of putting the polar bear on the endangered species list, the arctic ice continues to melt. The ice and ice flows of the arctic are the habitat of the polar bear.

Global warming is the culprit, claim environmentalists groups such as Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense League (NRDL). The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group in Joshua Tree, California, agrees.

In December of 2005, reports the National Geographic News in an online article entitled "Polar Bears Being Considered for U.S. Endangered List", the Center for Biological Diversity, along with Greenpeace and the NRDL, has sued the U.S. government for protection of the polar bear.

The article is dated February 10, 2006. The article states, "The Fish and Wildlife Service will spend the next 12 months examining scientific evidence about the changing Arctic environment and how it is affecting polar bears."

The changing arctic environment is the basis for the suit. Because global warming is melting the ice, the bears are losing their habitat.

Because the ice is melting, the bears are drowning. Because the ice is melting, the bears feeding season, for which they need ice flows to hunt and eat, has been shortened. The bears are getting thinner, and fewer cubs are surviving. Because the ice is melting, the bears are spending more time on land, and so moving toward populated areas.

If placed on the endangered species list, the article goes on to say, the polar bear would be "the first U.S. mammals officially deemed to be in danger of extinction because of global warming."

That would certainly lend credence to the argument that global warming exists and that it's more than just a matter of warmer winters and a greater demand for sunscreen.

What would happen if the polar bear were to make the endangered species list due to global warming? The National Geographic article explains: "If the polar bears are given protection, federal agencies will be required to consider how their decisions affect polar bears. For example the listing of polar bears could impact a coal plant seeking federal permission to emit heat-trapping gases or an automaker seeking to sell a gas-guzzling car."

How are polar bears affected by global warming? They are losing their habitat. They are losing their ability to hunt, to mate, and to raise their young.

But should the polar bear make the endangered species list, the fuel industry and the automaker industry will need to acknowledge the impact their industries have on the habitat of the polar bear. They will need to rethink how they produce the products they sell and the impact of those products on the environment.

Perhaps then industries will search out alternative fuels and production methods. Perhaps then the auto industry will design environmentally friendly cars and perhaps the people will rethink their need for gas-guzzling autos. Perhaps then there will be fewer greenhouse gasses and global warming will cease to be a threat.

Perhaps, if the polar bear makes the endangered species list, it will be said many decades from now, that the polar bear saved the earth.

Learn more about this author, Shelly Mcrae.
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