Decision on polar bears' status expected Thursday

Polar bears are expertly adapted to the Arctic

environment, and areas comfortable in the

water as they are onland. But changes to

the Arctic environment are literally happening

under their feet, as global warming melts

away the sea ice they depend on for survival.

Decision on polar bears' status expected Thursday

Updated Sun. May. 11 2008 6:14 PM ET

The Canadian Press

Canadian environmentalists and energy companies will be looking to the American government this week for a decision that will affect everything from the economy of remote northern communities to how this country's energy is sold in the U.S. After months of delay, a court order will force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare Thursday whether or not it believes polar bears are endangered.

This undated photo released by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows

a sow polar bear resting with her cubs on the

pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska.

(AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, Steve Amstrup)

"It's coming to a head," said Pete Ewins of the World Wildlife Fund. "The key thing, what are they going to say?'' The wildlife service has been expected since January to make a recommendation on whether the great white bears should come under the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

Tired of waiting, several American environmental organizations took the service to court over the delay and a judge has ordered it to make a ruling by Thursday.

That decision will be closely watched in Nunavut, where Inuit guides charge American hunters up to $30,000 for the privilege of shooting a polar bear. An endangered species listing would make it nearly impossible to bring trophies from such a hunt into the U.S., a restriction greatly expected to reduce the number of bear sport hunts in the Arctic. The government of Nunavut has intervened in the U.S., asking the service not to declare the bears endangered. But energy exports to the U.S. could also be affected, says Ewins. Such a listing for polar bears would commit the U.S. to not doing anything that could threaten the species further. Because the main threat to the bears is considered to be habitat loss from climate change, that could make it tougher to sell fuels that produce a higher amount of greenhouse gases, such as oil derived from Alberta's oilsands.

"U.S. programs, policies and financial measures involving the U.S. government that would further jeopardize the survival of polar bears would come under extremely strong scrutiny,'' Ewins said. "Further increases in greenhouse gases, causing the sea ice to melt, would be deemed as clearly in contravention of the Endangered Species Act.''

There have already been legislative moves in the U.S. to restrict the use of oilsands-derived oil. American environmental groups have also pressured users such as the airline industry to avoid it.

"There are huge implications here for the way fossil fuels are used and extracted,'' said Ewins.

American Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, responsible for the Fish and Wildlife service, was in Ottawa last Friday to meet with Canadian Environment Minister John Baird. Officials confirmed that polar bears were on the agenda.

Canada is also deciding what to do about the massive Arctic predator.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife In Canada recently said it would recommend the bears remain as a species of special concern. That would oblige Ottawa to address threats to the animal's survival, including climate change, but would give it until 2014 to come up with a management plan for Canada's estimated 15,000 bears.

That's a date by which some scientists believe the Arctic could be completely free of summer sea ice -- the bears' favoured hunting platform. Baird will receive the committee's report in August and will make a decision some time after that.