One more example of how environmentalism run wild is a threat to human needs.

Two conservation groups plan to sue to protect polar bears from petroleum exploration and drilling off Alaska's coast.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment gave the federal government formal notice Monday that they will sue under the Endangered Species Act to protect the bears, which were listed as threatened last month by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

Polar bears are threatened -- likely to become endangered -- because their sea ice habitat has melted dramatically and computer models predict further losses, Kempthorne said. Polar bears use sea ice for mating, denning and hunting.

Kempthorne said the best scientific judgments did not conclude that polar bears were threatened by oil and gas development.

The conservation groups do not agree.

Of course, there is no real threat to the polar bears, whose population has been expanding. But the willingness of the Bush Administration to make the faulty classification of the bears as threatened now threatens America's energy independence and national security.

After all, one group recently indicated its intent to start challenging projects it considers "global warming threats" ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY as threatening the polar bear's habitat in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Two things need to happen here.

First, the Bush Administration needs to admit its error and remove the polar bear from the threatened list.

Second, the Endangered Species Act needs to be amended to put human needs first -- or better yet, it needs to be repealed completely.

Posted by: Greg at 01:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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