Recently I posted a story about our dear friends, the polar bears. The Bush Administration had been dragging their feet, with the Department of The Interior carrying the Bush banner in reverse... as has been the case with just about everything either environmental-conscious or envirinmentally protective since 2001.
Finally today, the ruling came down from the Bush administration... when the Department of the Interior declared that the polar bear is now considered a "threatened specias"... and as such, it must be protected.
The continuing decline of the heretofore major ice cap in the Arctic sea has been worsening over the last fifteen to thirty years, and scientists and environmentalists have been pojecting even additional losses.
As global temperatures rise, water currents change. With the change in currents and the rising temperatures comes the melting of the ice caps. As these glorious animals have adapted to living in frigid temperatures... which for them are required... the ongoing change in their habitat endangers their very being.
The disappearance of the historically massive ice areas endanger the polar bear because it diminishes the areas available for feeding grounds, and for breeding, for these majestic animals. If something cannot be done to either slow down the disappearance of the ice, or even turn it around... extinction seems unstoppable.
How much longer America can sit idly by and watch the myriad of habitats for a variety of threatened animals gradually disappear remains a mystery. But... if our national policy is not given a complete 180 degree turn-around... further distruction is inevitable.
We can only hope that a change is coming, and that the incoming administration will make appropriate revisions to our national policies.
We have been given this earth as a gift. As it's inhabitants, we have been trusted to be it's keepers. We are also expected to be able to hand it over to the generations to come in a condition that either mirrors how we found it, or in an improved condition. If we are unable to do that... we have failed ourselves, our children, and our planet.
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