Summary
The U.S. ruling has already increased pressure on the Conservative government and Environment Minister John Baird to follow the Americans' lead and reclassify the polar bear as a "threatened species" -- today in Canada it is placed in the lower designation of "special concern," a situation that one environmentlist called "bizarre." This is more of an emotional reaction than one rooted in science. The polar bear population has been pretty well steady, increasing in many places, and only last month the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, which advises Ottawa on endangered species, reported that the bears are numerous enough that changing their status is unnecessary. Canadian Inuit, who have just seen their sports hunting industry destroyed by the stroke of an American pen, also say the bears have never been so common.
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Extract
Editorial - Bear Necessities
The reclassification of the polar bear under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a bittersweet victory for environmentalists in both the U....
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