DOI Decision on Polar Bears Wrong on Science and Reality

NCPA Expert Says Ruling Reflects Concern for Politics, Not Polar Bears DALLAS, May 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A decision today by the Bush Administration to list the polar bear as a threatened species is not based upon the best available science, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. The U.S. Interior Department's decision, delivered a day before a court-imposed deadline, cites the decline in Arctic sea ice as the reason. "Secretary Kempthorne's decision to list the polar bear as threatened is not based on the best available science," Burnett said, "nor does it conform to direct observation of polar bear populations." Kempthorne noted that the Interior Department will cite studies by its own scientists, based on computer models showing that the decline in Arctic sea ice could lead to the demise of two-thirds of the polar bear population by 2050, even though the computer predictions don't match the current census of polar bears. "Basing such a serious decision on computer models that still cannot accurately portray present climate conditions and have not met objective standards established by forecasting experts is foolish," Burnett added. "Sea ice has actually grown back this year and polar bear populations, as a whole, are healthy, growing and not endangered or threatened." Research shows, for example, that Alaska's polar bear population is stable and Canada's polar bear population has increased 25 percent during the past decade. Where polar bears are declining scientists think the reason may be due to too many bears competing for food, rather than a decline in sea ice.