Who Needs Bears Anyway?

Trey Smith

The Obama Administration issued a proposed rule yesterday that disregards the effects of greenhouse gases on polar bear habitat leading one conservation group to say that the rule echoes former President George W. Bush's plan, and that it will lead to the extinction of polar bears.

Noting that polar bears are only on the endangered species list precisely because of loss of habitat caused by greenhouse gases generated from activities outside the Arctic, the proposed rule excluding activities outside the range of polar bears from regulations will lead to the bears' demise.

Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity called the rule "complete doublespeak," the Associated Press reports. "It's saying, 'Here is a rule necessary for the conservation of the polar bear,' yet the only thing it does is exempt from regulation the overwhelming threat to the species."

“If polar bears are to survive we have to directly confront the greatest threat to them: our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
~ from Obama Echoes Bush, Sets Plan for Polar Bear Extinction via Common Dreams ~

Human beings are the only creatures that make wholesale decisions on the survivability of OTHER species. Like almost every other aspect of this modern world, animals, plants and the planet itself are viewed as pawns to be moved around and/or "sacrificed" for the king (short-term profits)! If our actions are the direct cause of another species going extinct, then so be it. Wealth, it seems, trumps life.

When Pres. Bush first promoted this egocentric plan, liberals were up in arms. We were told that they cared about the intrinsic worth of polar bears. But now that a Democrat sits in the White House, that intrinsic worth appears to add up to less than zero!