Proposed Polar Bear ESA listing threatens you
Global warming regulations will come at you hard
I’ve honestly never seen a more over-reaching regulatory action – with less scientific evidence to back it up – for a greater and more harmful impact on energy prices and availability, jobs, families, national security or minorities. Your immediate action is vital, and could make a profound difference.
The following call for action comes from the American Land Rights Association:
This is an all out call to action.
You must call, write, fax and e-mail again and again.
See Action Items below:
-----You have no time to waste. You must deluge the White House and Interior Department with calls, faxes and e-mails. We've given you some special inside numbers and addresses below.
-----Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the Department of the Interior and its Fish and Wildlife Service are getting ready to trample on your rights, drive up your cost of living, and regulate virtually every aspect of your life.
-----President Bush plans to announce his concern about the Polar Bear in his January 28 State of the Union address. This statement will start the regulatory ball rolling down the hill toward you.
Under intense pressure from radical environmentalists over their perceived threat of Global Warming, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne is dropping hints that under the Endangered Species Act, he will declare the Polar Bear a threatened species - within the next few weeks but after the President's State of the Union Message.
If he does, any activity that arguably adds to hypothetical global warming ... and thus supposedly causes arctic ice melting, habitat loss and Polar Bear deaths ... will be subject to Department of the Interior (DOI) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) control.
This decision would destroy jobs, undermine economic growth and destroy personal choice on the basis of conjecture and computer models.
-----When the public realizes how much damage is caused by naming the Polar Bear a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act, this economically destructive decision will cause massive outrage among the voters.
This decision would effectively put the Fish and Wildlife Service - and an army of bureaucrats, regulators, activists and judges - in charge of every energy and economic decision in America. The impact could easily be worse than the Kyoto Protocol.
You're going to have Fish and Wildlife agents on your property.
Compared to this decision, the Spotted Owl and Snail Darter cases were pimples on an elephant.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne plans to issue his Endangered Species Act "Threatened Polar Bears" decision a week or so after the President's State of the Union message. But it could happen even earlier than that.
You can help stop it.
-----Action Items:
-----1. Tell President Bush – Keep the Polar Bear out of his State of the Union address. Ask Secretary Kempthorne to scrap this dangerous idea.
White House – President Bush: Please contact President Bush through one or more of the following staff.
Main White House Number: (202) 456-1111 Fax Number: (202) 456-2461 E-mail: comments@whitehouse.gov
Regular mail: (Keep in mind regular mail is slow.)
President George Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
-----3. Call your Congressman. Every Congressman can be called at (202) 225-3121. Any Congressman can be called at that number.
-----4. Call both your Senators at (202) 224-3121. Every Senator may be called at this number.
-----5. Forward this message to your friends, neighbors and business associates.
If the next President wants to trash the economy and our living standards and civil rights, that is for him to decide.
But President Bush should not do it. No matter whether the next President is a Republican or Democrat, the Voters will make whoever is elected pay if they make such a terrible decision.
-----You need to act immediately – or your energy and economic life will soon be dictated by climate change alarmists in government agencies, courts and environmental groups.
-----This may seem unlikely to someone unfamiliar with the Endangered Species Act. But under the Act, any activity that is regulated by the Federal Government (because it affects air or water quality, for example) would be subject to further regulation on the grounds of greenhouse gases and potential effects on Polar Bears.
That would mean facility emissions or modifications, expanded manufacturing capacity, increased shipping and a host of other activities would come under renewed scrutiny for new reasons.
Remember: Virtually everything we do involves fossil fuels and greenhouse gases.
85% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. That means almost every heating, cooling, transportation and electricity generation decision will be affected. Utility and manufacturing companies will be required to slash their CO2 emissions – and be forced to raise their prices to cover those huge new costs.
But it won't stop there.
Every other source of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases will also be regulated and restricted by environmental alarmists: bakeries, breweries, chicken and dairy farms, cattle ranches, dry cleaners, auto manufacturers and dealers, cement and other industrial facilities, and on and on.
As their costs go up, so will your costs to heat and cool your home, drive your car, clothe your family and put food on the table.
As companies seek ways to cut expenses, to cover GHG control outlays, they will trim their workforces or send jobs overseas.
Basic civil rights and individual freedoms will be hammered. Al Gore and John Travolta will still fly their private jets. But the rest of us will be told what and how much we can drive. How high or low we can set our thermostats. Where or whether we can go on vacation. What we can put on the dinner table.
Blue collar, poor, fixed income and minority families will get hit hardest. But everyone's jobs, freedoms and cost of living will be affected.
And in the end it won't matter one whit. China and India will continue to emit more and more carbon dioxide. And our climate will continue to change, just as it has repeatedly over the ages – from natural causes.
The fact is, the entire notion of catastrophic climate change is based on nothing more than hypotheses, headlines, hype, hysteria, worst-case scenarios from climate change computer models – and the insatiable desire of bureaucrats and radical greens to eliminate fossil fuels and control our lives.
Every step of the way, they will be aided by government-funded scientists who know a tax-dollar gravy train when they see one - and by UN agencies looking to tax your energy use so that they can create a perpetual cash cow to replace their Oil-For-Food money.
It's up to you to make sure this doesn't happen. But you have to act ---- Immediately.
President Bush plans to note his concern about the Polar Bears in his January 28 State of the Union address.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne plans to announce his "threatened Polar Bears" decision under the Endangered Species Act a week or two later. But it could happen even earlier than that.
Act now. By phone, fax, email, letter to the editor or personal visit.Ask your Congressman or Senators for their fax and e-mail. Call them, then call them again. Keep up the pressure.
Tell President Bush - Keep this out of his State of the Union address. Ask him to urge Secretary Kempthorne to reconsider any plans to list Polar Bears as threatened.
If the Democrats want to trash the economy and our living standards and basic rights, they'll get the proper credit from the voters.
Republicans do not destroy jobs, undermine economic growth or destroy personal choice on the basis of conjecture and computer models.
-----Tell Secretary Kempthorne – You have no legal, factual or scientific basis for declaring that Polar Bears are threatened or endangered.
There is limited danger to arctic habitats, and very little evidence of imminent threat to Polar Bears. Computer models, hype, headlines and pressure tactics are not evidence.
America will not tolerate trampling on our energy and economic rights by overzealous environmental groups, sending our cost of living into the stratosphere, and putting bureaucrats and radical environmentalists in charge of our lives.
-----Tell your Senator and Congressman – This proposal is a huge mistake. There is no legal, factual or scientific basis for it.
Your Congressman and Senator must tell President Bush and Secretary Kempthorne they need to scrap this idea – and do their homework on the Endangered Species Act. They need to gather balanced scientific information on the true state of Polar Bear populations, the history of warming and cooling in the Arctic, and the impact that this decision would have on jobs, prices and lives.
If they don't, they will be held accountable on November 4 and later elections for their rampant, mindless destruction of civil liberties and the American Dream.
-----More Background:
Here are a few more facts that you might want to mention.
Average Alaskan temperatures are NOT climbing. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the January-June statewide average temperature for Alaska was 0.55 degrees Fahrenheit colder in 2006 than the 1971-2000 average.
"Polar Bears are not going extinct," insists Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a biologist with the government of Nunavut, in Canada's Northwest Territory. According to Dr Taylor, Polar Bears do not even "appear to be affected" by climate change. They adapt well to changing conditions and prey opportunities.
Moreover, there are enough that the Nunavut government allows hunters to kill up to 500 Polar Bears a year, to preserve other wildlife species that the bears eat, and to generate revenue. This can cause temporary declines in bear populations, which has nothing to do with extinction.
But even with this hunting, of the 13 Polar Bear populations in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number, according to Dr. Taylor. Overall, there are some 22,000 Polar Bears in the wild.
Dr. David Legates, Delaware state climatologist and director of the University of Delaware Center for Climatic Research, also says Polar Bears are in no way threatened with extinction. With nearly 20 Polar Bear populations in the world, only five of the distinct North American Polar Bear populations are believed to be decreasing - and two are in areas where air temperatures have actually fallen. Over-hunting may be responsible, say some experts.
Two populations are growing, and they are in areas where air temperatures have risen, such as near the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea. Five populations are stable. Scientists don't even know enough about seven other North American groups to say whether their populations are increasing, decreasing or stable.
There are 2,500 to 3,000 Polar Bears in the US South Baffin Sea and Canadian Boothia Peninsula alone. They move constantly, however, so precise population counts are difficult. None of these facts fit the idea that Polar Bears are threatened by climate change.
Weather and temperature swings are the norm - not something out of the ordinary.
Temperatures in Alaska have ranged from +100 (Fort Yukon, 1915) down to -80 (Prospect Creek, 1976). Any analysis beginning in 1975 will likely show a warming trend upward from a very cold period. The Polar Bears survived both and will continue to do just fine.
Fort Smith in Canada's Northwest Territories reached 103 deg F in July 1941. Its coldest was -79 deg F. The Polar Bears survived those extremes, too.
By selecting the 1975-2000 warming period, alarmists were able to project a trend that – if it continued – would lead to catastrophic Arctic warming. But this is junk science at its worst. It is a completely bogus foundation for public policies that will affect jobs, prices and lives all over the United States.
If those scientists had selected a different time period, they would get a completely different result. Between 1938 and 1966, Arctic temperatures fell 6 degrees F. A trend-line based on that would have projected temperatures plummeting by 22 degrees in just one century! They would have reached the temperature of dry ice (minus 109 F) in just five centuries. That would really impact Polar Bears!
Using short-term trend lines as the basis for public policy is completely bogus and insane.
Under the ESA, a species is "threatened" if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. That does not mean 40, 50 or 100 years from now. It does not mean based on worst-case scenarios conjured up by computer models that can't even provide accurate climate forecasts one year in advance – or even the weather two weeks from now. It does not mean for a small portion of a range that extends across most of the Arctic, from Alaska to Canada, Siberia and Finland.
The only factual basis for all this hysteria is a short-term warming trend, which many scientists say is due to air and ocean currents associated with the recurrent Pacific Decadal Oscillation. What we are seeing today is little different from the warming that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s. The Polar Bears survived that warming – as well as four or more Ice Ages and warm interglacial periods between them. They will survive this warming … and the next cooling period, too.
In fact, recently discovered fossils from Svaldard, Iceland show that Polar Bears survived at least one interglacial that was warmer than the current one. The 130,000-year-old fossil suggests that "maybe we don't have to be so worried about the Polar Bear," said Professor Olafur Ingolfsson.
Another recent study found that that the key to Polar Bear survival is restoring the fat they lose during winter hibernation. They do so by dining on young seals – a task that is made easier by lack of snow cover and ice. Moreover, warmer weather makes it easier for seals to find fish, and more CO2 in the atmosphere increases algae growth and biomass, which means there are more fish. So moderate warming is more likely to increase Polar Bear populations, than limit them.
That's why climate alarmists keep screaming about computer models and their supposed predictions of climate disaster, Arctic meltdown and Polar Bear extinction. But those models and scenarios are worthless and must not be allowed to justify government policies that will impact jobs, families and living standards, for no environmental benefit.
-----Other Organizations: Please keep our name on this e-mail somewhere so people will know the source in case they need documentation or more information. However, you are free to take our mast head off and put your information on in order to forward this to your members.
You may also add your masthead to the top with ours.
-----The key is to get calls, faxes and e-mails to the White House staff and to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and his staff. Send your comments to the press as well.
Your help passing on this information is greatly appreciated.
Chuck Cushman Executive Director American Land Rights Association ccushman@pacifier.com
Land Rights Network American Land Rights Association PO Box 400 - Battle Ground, WA 98604 Phone: 360-687-3087 - Fax: 360-687-2973 E-mail: alra@pacifier.com Web Address: http://www.landrights.org Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE - Washington, DC 20003
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org). He received his J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law.