Alaska Suing to Bounce Bears Off Threatened List

As ice caps melt, trophy hunters take aim, polar bears belong on endangered list

(NEWSER) - It's bad enough when 40% of your habitat will disappear by mid-century, but add trophy hunters taking advantage of a loophole in US law, and it's not a good time to be a polar bear, the Independent on Sunday reports. The bears are not listed as endangered so 950 pelts have been imported from Canada since 1994. More»

Mama grizzly, papa polar means threatened baby

(NEWSER) - Melting arctic sea ice isn’t just threatening polar bears’ lives—it’s threatening their gene pool. The loss of ice means more contact between polar bears and genetically-similar grizzlies, which means cross-breeding, scientists say. Hunters have shot at least two polar-grizzly crosses since 2006, the Independent reports. Other species appear to be mixing, too, including beluga whales and narwhals, as well as bowhead and right whales. More»

(NEWSER) - John Kerry takes Sarah Palin to task for missing the big picture in her essay today against President Obama's cap-and-trade proposal. Palin, he writes in the Huffington Post, manages to criticize legislation to curb climate change without acknowledging the dangers of climate change itself. "It's like complaining about the cost of repairing a roof without factoring in the leaks destroying your home." More»

VP pick has denied warming is man-made, focused on adapting, not reversing

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin disagrees with both John McCain and scientific consensus on the causes of global warming, acknowledging that while Alaska has warmed by 4 degrees during the past 50 years, she’s not among those who “attribute it to being man-made.” McCain, meanwhile, has made a signature issue of capping carbon emissions in an effort to reverse climate change, the Washington Post reports. More»

First species to be listed as endangered by global warming

(NEWSER) - After 15 months of deliberation, the Interior Department will declare polar bears “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, officials told the AP today. The decision will reportedly cite internal scientific studies which project that melting Arctic ice could nearly wipe out the animals by 2050. More»