It could be the first species to be listed as threatened with extinction primarily because of global warming.

The Bush administration is nearing a decision that would officially acknowledge the environmental damage of global warming, and name its first potential victim: the polar bear.

The Interior Department may act as soon as this week on its year-old proposal to make the polar bear the first species to be listed as threatened with extinction because of melting ice due to a warming planet.

Both sides agree that conservationists finally have the poster species they have sought to use the Endangered Species Act as a lever to force federal limits on the greenhouse gases linked to global warming, and possibly to battle smokestack industry projects far from the Arctic.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. "And then there is the polar bear."

Even Frank Luntz, the political consultant who advised President Bush six years ago to focus on discrediting the science of global warming and refer to it as "climate change," has recognized the bear's potency. In an interview on the environmental website Grist.org, he said the public has a "soft side" for the bear.

Federal government scientists have presented increasingly compelling evidence that the top predator at the top of the world is doomed if the polar regions get warmer and sea ice continues to melt as forecast.

Two-thirds of the population could be gone by mid-century if current trends continue, experts say. Bears are beholden to sea ice, where they perch so they can pounce on unsuspecting seals, their primary food.

Images pop up regularly of scrawny, exhausted bears dragging themselves onto ice floes looking like bones covered in sodden white rugs. So do reports of struggling bears swimming wearily in open water. It's a shocking contrast to the pop-culture image: smiling animated bears guzzling Coca-Cola in commercials, fat lounging bears drawing crowds at zoos or fluffy Polyester stand-ins adorning children's bedrooms.

"These are soft and cuddly, giving bears," said Anthony Leiserowitz, a public opinion researcher and director of the Yale Project on Climate Change. "We give them to each other on Valentine's Day and tuck them in with our children at night."

LA Times

What an absolute load of feel-good crap.

Population Estimates:
[Note: Figures given are for wild populations only.]

WORLD
1965: About 10,000 (IUCN 1966)
1967: About 10,000 (Schuhmacher 1967)
1972: Roughly estimated at 20,000 (DeMaster & Stirling 1981)
1983: Perhaps 20,000 (Nowak & Paradiso 1983)
1996: 20,000 - 30,000 (Watson 1996)
1997: 22,000 - 27,000 (Garner 1997)
1998: 22,130 - 27,030 (Truett & Johnson 2002)
2001: At least 22,000 (Schliebe 2001)
2002: 21,500 - 25,000 (Lunn et al. 2002)
2005: 20,000 - 25,000 (Polar Bear Spec. Gr. 2005)
2006: 20,000 - 25,000 (IUCN 2006)

animalinfo.org