THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 218, November 18, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
LOONS & BEARS VERSUS ESKIMOS & OIL
By Alan Caruba
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS VERSUS OIL EXPLORATION & EXTRACTION: GREENS SEEKING TO PREVENT
PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT IN ALASKA'S NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE, THE 23-MILLION ACRE RESERVE THAT COVERS
MUCH OF ALASKA'S NORTH SLOPE -- USING THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT & BOGUS CLAIMS OF HUMAN-INDUCED
GLOBAL WARMING TO CLOSE THE ARCTIC SLOPE TO OIL DRILLING -- JUST ONE MORE WAY ENVIRONMENTALISTS &
GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS SEEK TO CRIPPLE AMERICA'S ECONOMY & NATIONAL SECURITY BY FINDING PHONY
REASONS TO DENY ACCESS TO KNOWN RESERVES OF FOSSIL-FUEL ENERGY SOURCES
FULL STORY:
“A petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a rare loon that breeds in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve
has been accepted for review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service” noted a May 29, 2007 Associated Press article.
“Conservationists hope an eventual listing of the yellow-billed loon will curb petroleum development in the 23-million acre
reserve that covers much of Alaska’s North Slope.”
So, at a time when a $100 barrel of oil makes economies around the world quiver, the “conservationists” are more interested
in a yellow-billed loon than in your ability to drive to work, pick up the kids at school, or just go anywhere in your car.
Thank you, environmentalists everywhere, thank you for being so obscenely oblivious to reality.
However, yellow-billed loons are not sufficiently illustrative of alleged dangers to species in the frozen North. Polar bears,
however, are. Polar bears are the poster children of global warming and we all “know” that all the ice is melting in the Arctic,
the bears are drowning or just damn well running out of food because “human activity” is affecting an environment in which
they have lived and thrived for millennia.
If you believe such nonsense, let me first remind you that the scientific name for polar bears is “Ursus maritimus,”
bespeaking their distinctive ability to swim anywhere they want. Typically, among the lies Al Gore tells in his fib-o-mentary,
An Inconvenient Truth, is the claim that polar bears “have been drowning in significant numbers,” but the truth is
this claim is based on a single report that four polar bears drowned as the result of a storm.
Based on a total lie called “global warming,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to rush through a ruling that polar
bears are an “endangered species” and that a vast swath of Alaska has to be protected against the possibility that one of
them might die for any reason.
Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin, is not a happy camper these days. In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, she
said, “The listing of a currently healthy species based entirely on highly speculative and uncertain climate and ice modeling,
and equally uncertain and speculative modeling of possible impacts on a species would be unprecedented.”
Need it be said that the locals, otherwise known as Inupiats, or Eskimos, regard this as a very real threat to their interests?
Representing them is the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) and, on October 22, 2007, they wrote a letter protesting
that the “listing of the polar bear under the ESA should not be used as a land management tool or to drive climate change
policy.”
Noting a U.S. Geological Survey report focuses “intensely on statistical analysis and modeling approaches to make key
determinations regarding polar bear mortality”, the ASRC identifies the core of all climate change claims, the flawed and
deliberately manipulated computer models that have little relationship to real polar bears in their natural habitat.
The environmentalists seeking to put the polar bears on the Endangered Species list conveniently overlook a report by the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) noting there are some 22,000 polar bears in 20 distinct populations worldwide. H. Sterling
Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, noted in a 2006 commentary published by The
Washington Times:
“Only two bear populations — accounting for about 16.4 percent
of the total — are decreasing, and they are in areas where air
temperatures have actually fallen, such as the Baffin Bay region."
“By contrast, another two populations — about 13.6 percent of
the total number — are growing and they are living in areas where
air temperatures have risen, near the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea.”
[i.e., just off the coast of Alaska!]
The World Wildlife Fund study found the ten populations — comprising about 45.4 percent of the total — are stable, and
the status of the remaining six is unknown. As Burnett points out:
“These bears have survived for thousands of years, during both
colder and warmer periods, and their populations are, by and large,
in good shape. Polar bears may face many threats, but global
warming is not primary among them. Global warming alarmists are
like the wizard of Oz, asking the public fear the spectacle, but not
to pull back the curtain and unmask them for the charlatans they
are.”
Meanwhile, ASRC informed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that “local and state activities, and oil and gas activity in the
Arctic has not been linked to a decrease in the polar bear population.”
This is, however, all about oil exploration and extraction. It is not about the loons or the bears. It is just one more example of
the way environmentalists seek to cripple the nation’s economy and security by finding bogus reasons to restrict access to
known reserves of these energy sources.
And let’s add one more black mark to the Bush administration’s failures. The proposal to list polar bears was announced by
Interior Secretary Kempthorne on December 27, 2006, just about a year ago. The final determination is scheduled for January
9, 2008. That leaves precious little time to let the Secretary know just how wrong he is and to stop yet another disastrous
ESA listing.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity