GREENPEACE ACTIVIST ARRESTED FOR PEACEFUL PROTEST OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S DELAY IN DECLARING POLAR BEAR AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
Activist in Polar Bear Costume Had Begun Vigil At Department of Interior Park Pond
WASHINGTON – A Greenpeace activist was arrested today for peaceful protest of the Bush administration’s delay in issuing a final Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear due to global warming. The
activist, dressed in a polar bear suit, began a vigil by sitting in a paddle boat with signs in a pond at a park in front of the Department of Interior. Messaging on the signs included: „Boats float, bears don’t,” accompanied by an image of polar bears on shrinking ice and „3 years and waiting” with ’waiting’ crossed out and replaced by ’wading,’ and „Save the polar bears now.” The protestor was charged with a federal misdemeanor for demonstrating without a permit.
"The scientific evidence is clear: the polar bear is at risk of extinction because of global warming. Yet the Bush administration stubbornly continues to defy both science and the world by obstructing all meaningful efforts to curb global warming,” said John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. "Greenpeace urges the administration not to let its allegiance to Big Energy stall its efforts to develop a plan to protect polar bears.”
The Endangered Species Act requires a listing process of no longer than two years, but almost three years have passed since a scientific petition was submitted in February of 2005 calling on the government to
list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Bush administration in December of 2005, when it missed
its first deadline. Responding to the suit in February of 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that protection of polar bears "may be warranted," and began a full status review of the species. On December
27, 2006, the Service announced its proposal to list the species as "threatened" and missed a legal deadline of January 9, 2008.
Polar bears live only in the Arctic and are totally dependent upon the sea ice for all their essential needs. Their future in a rapidly warming Arctic is dim. In September 2007, scientists reported that the Arctic ice cap has lost one million square miles – an area six-times the size of California. This loss shattered records from the past several decades and beat predictions for melting not expected until 2050. The U.S. Geological Service has predicted that two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population are likely to be extinct by 2050, including all
polar bears within the United States.
Listing the polar bear would obligate federal agencies to ensure that any action they authorize, fund or carry out will not jeopardize the polar bears’ continued existence or adversely modify their critical habitat, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be required to prepare a recovery plan for the polar bear, specifying measures necessary for its protection.
CONTACT: Jane Kochersperger, 202-319-2493; 202-680-3798 cell
