Reference: The latest threat to the polar bear, Bangkok Post, March 22, 2009

It is reported that the polar bear's survival as a species is threatened not only by climate change that is melting Arctic ice but also by hunters who shoot them (The latest threat to the polar bear, Bangkok Post, March 22, 2009). In this regard one should note that in October 2007 the global warmists sounded an alarm because of the extent of the summer melt of Arctic ice that year and issued a dire forecast and warning that the Arctic was on its way to becoming ice free once again and that therefore the polar bear should be declared an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Since then, however, Arctic ice has made a great comeback and is now at normal levels. As well, the polar bear population is healthy and strong enough for the Canadian government to issue hunting licenses to cull the herd. All of the proposals from global warmists to protect the polar bear were audited and rejected as unscientifc (http://www.forecastingprinciples.com/Public_Policy/PolBears.pdf). 

The polar bear is therefore not a protected species under the Endangered Species Act. Yet the hysteria already created in the media about the alleged impending demise of the polar bear continues unabated because it has taken on such momentum that it now runs on pure inertia having run out of a rational basis given the data.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand