Domestic Policy

Greenpeace Is Accused Of Using Dirty Politics To Get The Job Done

December 18, 2005 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

Many politicians say the Greenpeace Group, along with other environmentalists, are playing dirty politics to try and force the enacting of legislation that has already been soundly rejected by the President and his administration.

Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in San Francisco claiming that Polar bears are becoming endangered and face possible extinction, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court was against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The conservation groups believe the Polar bears are threatened by population decline and they are facing possible extinction because of a global warming related loss of their Arctic sea ice. The lawsuit clearly implies that the Arctic sea ice is melting because of global warming and polar bears are entirely reliant on sea ice environment for their survival.

Many politicians feel the real reason this may be being done is an attempt by these so called Green groups, to get the Bush administration to sign up with the Kyoto protocol. A Greenpeace spokesman stated, “Global warming and rising temperatures in the Arctic jeopardize the polar bear’s very existence…Polar bears cannot survive without sea ice; polar bears could disappear in our lifetime if we don’t take action.”

Bush has already stated that the Kyoto Protocol is not good legislature; he feels it is not fair or complete for all areas of the world. Bush has previously stated, “I oppose the Kyoto Protocol because it exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the U.S. economy.”

If the lawsuit is won it will force the wildlife service to declare the polar bear a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Currently there are no mammals listed on the danger, or at risk, extinction list.

If a species is added to the at risk list, the government is banned from any actions that are considered to jeopardize the animal’s existence or its habitat. This stipulation is how the environmentalists hope to enforce the Bush administration into enacting tougher legislation on greenhouse emissions and the push to join the list of countries that have signed the Kyoto treaty. The environmentalists hope to compel the government into actions designed to curb U.S. production of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The three conservation groups say they have ample evidence to use in court to display that scientific evidence proves that the sea ice is melting because of global warming.

A listing on the endangered list triggers a series of protections, including a ban on killing the animals without a permit; a requirement that no federal agency may take actions harming the species; and a requirement that the wildlife service designate critical habitat.

The lawsuit is seeking to have the government take immediate action on a petition environmentalists had filed earlier to have polar bears listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Are these conservation groups just utilizing the Polar bear as a means to an end or is there a real danger here?

Groups sue to protect polar bears

Related Posts