News of the North

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently shot and killed 14 adult wolves from the air - and then, finding a den full of 14 newly orphaned wolf pups, shot each pup in the head.

The process of staking out wolf dens is illegal, and it took weeks for the truth to come out about this slaughter. Aerial wolf killing is currently legal as part of a “wildlife management” program to increase moose and caribou herds for hunting.

If you want to see what both sides have to say, read the heated debate going on at the Fairbanks News-Miner’s website.

Watch this video from Defenders of Wildlife on Alaska’s aerial hunting program - then sign the petition to make them stop it.

There is good news for wolves in the Northwest, though - Washington State has confirmed spotting the first gray wolf pack in the area since the 1930s. Remote cameras captured photos of six wolf pups. Wolves are protected as an endangered species throughout Washington. In July, Rocky Mountain wolves were put back on the endangered species list again, forcing Idaho, Wyoming and Montana to cancel their hunts for the fall.

Remember the Exxon Valdez, the supertanker which dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil on the coast of Alaska in 1989? In June, the Supreme Court reduced the damages charged against Exxon from $2.5 billion down to $507 million, saying that punitive damage charges should match actual damage costs. From this we can learn that the 500,000 seabirds, 1,000 sea otters, 12 river otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 orcas, and billions of salmon and herring eggs that died in the oil spill have no actual monetary value and are not worth taking into consideration.

And if we don’t watch it, this sort of thing could happen again. Bound and determined to drill somewhere, Bush has lifted a ban on offshore oil drilling. This does not yet mean that drilling can start, as the federal law will have to be changed first - and the Republicans are even willing to skip their recess to do it.

Take a quick look at what areas are affected, including marine sanctuaries - and look how small those sanctuaries actually are.

Read more about offshore drilling and, if you’re in the US, please sign this petition against lifting the moratorium.

It was a hollow victory for environmental groups and the poster child of global warming, the polar bear. In May, the US Government finally listed the polar bear as threatened, but stated clearly that the bears would be given no additional protection beyond what is already provided by the Marine Mammal Act.

Now the Bush administration has also granted permission to oil and gas companies to harass “small numbers” of polar bears and walruses in the Chukchi Sea, stating that the major threat to the bear is climate change, not oil and gas exploration. Employees will be trained in how to handle bear encounters, but the companies will not be held liable if the bears are unintentionally harmed.

Environmental groups are suing the government because it has failed to protect the bears by addressing climate change. Coming at them from the other side, the state of Alaska is also suing the government to revoke the bear’s “threatened” designation, concerned that it will endanger oil and gas development.

Polar bears wishing to emigrate aren’t having any better luck in other countries. A wandering polar bear was recently shot and killed in Iceland, the first seen on the island in twenty years.

Take steps to protect the polar bear at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Finally, the US can point some fingers elsewhere. China has recently become the world’s dominant source of carbon dioxide emissions, contributing 14% more to the atmosphere than the United States, according to a Dutch study.

China is heavily dependent on coal, and, as a developing nation, has resisted pressure to reduce emissions that would reduce its economic growth. China also points out that its footprint is 5.1 tons per person, unlike the average American, who outputs a whopping 19.4 tons of carbon dioxide.

What’s your carbon footprint?

The Interior Department of the United States government has until May 15 to decide whether or not the polar bear should be considered a threatened species. The decision was originally due on January 9, 2008 based on a petition that began in 2005. While the Fish and Wildlife Service has been stalling, the Bush administration has been busy planning oil and gas leases on the Chukchi Sea, which is a known polar bear habitat.

There’s no guarantee that the polar bears will in fact be given their “threatened” designation, but environmental groups are prepared to appeal if the government denies the bears are in danger. In the meantime, hunters are scrambling to take the bears down while it’s still legal:

“It’s a super adrenalin rush. It’s incredible,” said Mark Beeler, a 49-year-old bow hunter from Milwaukee, Wis. “A polar bear is almost mysterious. Before this, I’d only ever seen a polar bear at the zoo.”

Let’s hear it for the educational value of zoos!

Whatever the decision may be in the States, Canada has to make its own decision on the status of polar bears. Canada has just labelled the bear a “special concern” - less serious than threatened or endangered -but stated that this is without taking global warming into consideration, a move called “weak” by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Follow along at the CBD’s web site.