Fox News is reporting today about a lawsuit brought by three environmental groups advocating the placement of polar bears on the Endangered Species List. If this happens, reporters state that it will mark the first time an animal has been considered endangered due to climate change.

It has been reported that melting arctic ice threatens polar bears because they use chunks of it to swim from place to place in search of food. Human greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide, are largely blamed for the melting.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the Bush Administration delaying placing the bears on the list by one month, probably to consider the economic ramifications of such a decision.

One such ramificaton – albeit minor compared to limiting greenhouse gas emissions - is the economic interests of local Inuit hunters, who depend on the sport hunting of polar bears for much needed income. Considering the bears endangered would bring prohibitions on sport hunting, wiping out one of the very few economic streams these people have.

But a larger question arises from this lawsuit – if greenhouse gas emissions are blamed and therefore must be curtailed to “save” the polar bear, will such a policy actually save the bear? It has been incessantly argued that the Earth’s climate will keep warming well into this century, supposedly meaning increased melting of polar ice and rising sea levels.

Whether or not we begin reducing emissions to zero right this minute, if “preventing” or “slowing” climate change is the environmentalists’ main means of saving the polar bear, I’m afraid our giant friends are doomed.

There are several ways we can save polar bears today, right now, without having to first fight about greenhouse gas emissions in court, in the legislature, in the market and on the world stage. I can’t think of a more idiotic way of attempting to “save” a species. Here are but a few:

·         Ban sport hunting of polar bears. Let the Inuit do something else, like guide wildlife photography tours.

·         Facilitate polar bear migration to areas with greater land mass. The bears will adapt.

·         Stock the Arctic with bear family-sized plastic or other floatation devices that will allow the bears to swim for years to come, regardless of ice coverage.

I’m not terribly worried about polar bears. As is mentioned in this Nunatsiaq News article (linked above) large mammals - including polar bears, apparently - have survived many of Earth’s climate variations, through ages warmer and colder than it is now.

Attempting to save one tiny species by “controlling” Earth’s climate is about as fanciful and unscientific  a notion as I think I’ve ever heard.