Did Santa give Global Warming Skeptic George Bush a lump of coal this Christmas, as he said he would in an email to me last week? Or did Bush have a Scrooge moment over the holiday break? Whatever the reason, there is encouraging news up north today as the Bush administration seeks to propose listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Doing so will put the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming may push the charismatic bears out of existence.
According to the Washington Post today,
Identifying polar bears as threatened with extinction could have an enormous political and practical impact. As the world's largest bear and as an object of children's affection as well as Christmastime Coca-Cola commercials, the polar bear occupies an important place in the American psyche. Because scientists have concluded that carbon dioxide from power-plant and vehicle emissions is helping drive climate change worldwide, putting polar bears on the endangered species list raises the legal question of whether the government would be required to compel U.S. industries to curb their carbon dioxide output.