Bush Administration to Polar Bears: Drop Dead!

I just received this from "Green Miles" Grant at the National Wildlife Federation:

UPDATE: I hear that Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett will host a conference call TODAY at 3:45 pm to discuss Secretary Kempthorne's major announcement on the status of the polar bear. Looks like Kempthorne's deputy is doing his dirty work for him. Cowards.

Hey, just wanted to give you a quick heads up that we're hearing indications that the Bush administration will decide NOT to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A judge has ordered a final decision on the polar bear by tomorrow (May 15 deadline). If it's true that they will move to not list, that decision would completely contradict evidence presented by the administration's own biologists and show the administration is putting obstruction on climate action ahead of protecting the polar bear.

The Endangered Species & Wetlands Report recently published this Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Canada, signed May 8th with no public notice that I can find.

Note that the MOU does not mention climate change.

In short, this is looking like a feeble attempt by the Bush Administration to justify a scientifically indefensible no-list decision for the polar bear. "See, we don't need to protect the polar bear - we have a non-binding memo!"  All of this would be comical if we weren't talking about the future -- or lack thereof -- of arguably North America's most iconic species.  This action also might possibly be slightly less than heinous if it weren't the continuation of the despicable pattern we've seen by the Bush Administration with regard to pretty much EVERY SINGLE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE over the past 7 1/2 years.  Utterly disgraceful; Teddy "Greatest Conservation President in American History" Roosevelt must be tossing around in his grave right now, wondering what happened to his Republican Party.

Oh, and for those of you who think John McCain will be significantly better, perhaps you might want to consider McSame's 24% lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters.  In short, if you care about the environment, do NOT vote Republican. It's as simple as that.