Polar Bear Climate Data Made Available

March 11, 2008

In 2007, the U.S. government's Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A decision was to have been made January 9 of this year, but that deadline came and went. Yesterday, three conservation groups wound up suing in an effort to enforce action by the feds.

Sales of valuable oil and gas leases in Alaskan coastal waters are also being negotiated now in prime polar bear habitat. These include the Beaufort Sea region near the north coast and the Russia-shared Chukchi Sea area along Alaska's northwest coast. A coincidence then about the delay? Most environmentalists think not.

Today the University of Wisconsin at Madison announced the public release of many of the reports addressing polar bear population and related climate change issues. These are posted by the U.S. Geological Survey. To view them, please go here.