Going, going....

gone....soon?


Go ahead...look away...I dare you.

As the pack ice that is the bedrock of their existence melts because of global warming, polar bears are facing unprecedented environmental stress that will cause their numbers to plummet, according to a report by a panel of the world's leading experts on the species.

In a closed meeting here late last month, 40 members of the polar bear specialist group of the World Conservation Union concluded that the imposing white carnivores -- the world's largest bear -- should now be classified as a "vulnerable" species based on a likely 30 percent decline in their worldwide population over the next 35 to 50 years. There are now 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears across the Arctic.

"The principal cause of this decline is climatic warming and its consequent negative affects on the sea ice habitat of polar bears," according to a statement released after the meeting. Scientists from five countries, including the United States, attended the meeting.

"All of the evidence is heading in the same direction, and the trend is dramatic," said Scott Schliebe, who led the Seattle meeting and is polar bear project leader in Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "In a shrinking ice environment, the ability of the bears to find food, to reproduce and to survive will all be reduced."

Schliebe emphasized that he was speaking for the panel and not for the U.S. government.

No, of course he's not speaking for the U.S. government, because the President of the United States refuses to do ANYTHING to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After all, SUV drivers with ribbon magnets on their vehicles have to be able to drive their behemoths to the supermarket, right? And Bush's buddies in the oil industry, from American executives to his kissin' cousins the Saudis, need even MORE money, right?

I don't know about you, but the thought of these beautiful animals dying out because for the thirty years in which they've been struggling while polar ice breaks up ahead of schedule every year, Republicans have blocked just about all attempts to find alternative sources of energy, just breaks my heart.