Polar Bear Lies

By Alan Caruba

We live in a day when lies about polar bears are used to deny Americans access to the vast oil reserves—billions of barrels—that are known to exist in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve and coastal areas. Extracting it would barely take up a fraction of one percent of ANWR and, as with the previous oil development, the wildlife are totally indifferent and unaffected.

The lie is that polar bears will become extinct in fifty years if they are not declared “endangered species” under the utterly useless, stupid legislation that environmentalists pushed through as yet another means to harm the economy. Polar bears are not endangered. Their numbers have risen from 5,000 in the 1950s to an estimated 22,000 today.

Think I am making this up? As the American Land Rights Association recently noted, “Ask timber workers in the West whose industry was all but eliminated by critical habitat designation for the spotted owl—whose numbers were later found to be declining, not because of logging, but due to invasion of its habitat by the more aggressive barred owl.”

“Ask those who used to farm in Oregon’s Klamath Valley who lost their irrigation water to protect fish that were later found to not be harmed by using the water for irrigation.”

“Ask the ranchers in Idaho’s Owyhee County who finally threw in the towel after their grazing allotments were so severely restricted they couldn’t continue.”

These are just three examples of the war on the timber industry, farming and ranching that is the hallmark of the environmental movement. They view oil as their greatest enemy and that is why there is a great push on to get the polar bears declared endangered.

What is endangered is a nation that already has to import most of its oil because so much of our national supplies and potential reserves are off limits.

What is endangered is the right of loggers, farmers, ranchers and all others who are an essential element of our economy to go about their business.

There are people in our government you need to contact NOW!

Joshua Bolton, Chief of Staff @ (202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-0192
mailto:456-0192joshua_b._bolton@who.eop.gov

Patrick Aylward, Director, Office of the Chief of Staff @ (202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-0192
mailto:456-0192patrick_s._aylward@who.eop.gov

Edward Gillespie, WH Communications @ (202) 456-7910 - Fax: (202) 456-1539
mailto:456-1539edward_w._gillespie@who.eop.gov

Cynthia Bergman, Communications @ (202) 456-2777 - Fax: (202) 456-2505
mailto:456-2505cynthia_l._bergman@who.eop.gov

Joseph Hagin, Assistant to the President @ (202) 456-6798 - Fax: (202) 456-1907
mailto:456-1907joseph_w._hagin@who.eop.gov

Emily Willeford, Office of Deputy Chief @ (202) 456-2450 - Fax: (202) 456-1907
mailto:456-1907emily_willeford@who.eop.gov

Fred Fielding, White House Counsel @ (202) 456-2632 - Fax: (202) 456-6279
mailto:456-6279fred_f._fielding@who.eop.gov

There is no legal, factual or scientific basis for declaring that polar bears are threatened or endangered. Under the ESA, a species is "threatened" if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Total polar bear population is about 22,000 animals.

There is no danger to arctic habitats and no evidence of imminent threat to polar bears.

Computer models, hype, headlines and pressure tactics are not evidence.

Temperatures in Alaska have ranged from +100 (Fort Yukon, 1915) down to -80 (Prospect Creek, 1976). Any analysis beginning in 1975 will likely show a warming trend upward from a very cold period. The polar bears survived both and will continue to do just fine.

Contact Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne @ (202) 208-3100
dirk_kempthorne@ios.doi.gov