Due to the melting Arctic sea ice related to global warming, polar bears are in jeopardy. The Bush administration’s Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, has proposed listing polar bears as a “threatened” species on the government list of imperiled species. The “endangered” species category is reserved for those species more likely to become extinct.

Besides thinning sea ice, scientists site pollution, over-hunting, development and tourism as factors playing causing the polar bear’s habitat to be shrinking.

The government will be doing more studies before they make the final decision to classify the bear threatened. The decision is a year away. And that decision would require all federal agencies to ensure that anything they did would not jeopardize polar bears lives directly or indirectly through the sea ice where they live. Included in this is oil and gas exploration, commercial shipping, and toxic contaminants or climate affecting pollution.

When talking about the current coastal and offshore oil and gas exploration, supported by the Bush administration, Kempthorne said, “It’s very clear that the oil and gas activity in the area does not pose a threat to the polar bears.”

In July, a U.S – Russia treaty to help protect Polar Bears from over-hunting and other threats was approved by the House. This put into effect a 2000 treaty setting quotas on hunting by native populations. It also set up a bilateral commission to analyze how best to sustain sea ice. And, it approved a $2million a year polar bear program.

The World Conservation Union, estimates there are currently 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears. And, that an estimated 30% decrease will occur in the next 45 years and that sea ice is expected to decrease 50 to 100% in the next 50 to 100 years.