Bush vs the Bears
May 13, 2008 at 1:30 am
Polar Bear
Polar bears, our wooly friends in the north, are ominously at the mercy of one man; a man whose track record regarding climate change has been tardy to say the least. The fate of the North Pole dwelling white mammal lies squarely at the door of the man in the White House.


Yes, the departing President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, so dismissive of climate change throughout his eight-year tenure as the most powerful man on earth, is having his hand forced to either declare or deny that the Polar bear is a species endangered by global warming. After repeatedly dodging the decision, a federal judge, Claudia Wilken, declared Bush’s delaying tactics were long ‘in violation of the law’, ordering him to make a decision on May 15th, 2008. This week in other words.. Simple enough you might think, but the ramifications either way could be significantly huge.

Last summer, over 200,000 square miles of ice melted away in the habitat of the polar bear, an area not that much smaller than Bush’s home state of Texas (268,601 square miles). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted this erosion of ice so catastrophic would not take place until at least the year 2050.

If Bush were to rule in favour that the Polar bear is indeed an endangered species, then it would undoubtedly thwart his administration’s policies, with the US government duty bound by law to ensure nothing detrimental should happen to the creature. Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kemthorne, of the US Geological Survey predicts around two-thirds of the creatures will be wiped out by 2050 if carbon emissions continue to rise as they are doing.

In the meantime, fans of the white bear, a potent symbol, representative of the plight of many of Planet Earth’s weaker inhabitants, are looking for a Plan B, no doubt sceptical regarding George W’s ability to pull his finger out or dishonour daddy’s friends. Some have suggested in all seriousness that the Polar Bear could be relocated to its polar opposite, the South Pole, where there is still an abundance of ice for now. But then mankind and nature would be confronted with another impending catastrophe, the culling of the indigenous penguin population… by new neighbour the Polar Bear.