Polar Bears Reach Threatened Species List

The increasing pressure and multiple lawsuits from various wildlife and environmental groups allowed the polar bears to be listed as a “threatened” species. In consequence of listing the polar bears as threatened, all federal US agencies must make certain that any actions authorized that may affect polar bears must not jeopardize the bears’ survival of their habitat, including oil and gas operations. Unfortunately, as the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorine says,

there will be no change in oil and gas operations by the US government. Instead, the loss of sea ice, rather than oil and gas development, is attributed as the real reason why the bears are threatened.