Why I'm a Care (polar) Bear

The question was asked to day in response to my post below, "Why do we care about the Polar Bear?" The answer I think across the board with the various endangered species can be boiled down to a simple point. Before man came to this planet there was a certain number of species and as man has evolved and from more powerful countless species have perished.

Each species that goes extinct represents a part of the eco-system gone. The commentor's example was the Passenger Pidgeon, a species lost to the world in the early part of the last century. The commenter posits that the loss of this species represents no direct impact on man, and therefore was rightly ignored. I have no idea if he is right on the first point, but on the second, I must disagree. Biodiversity is a measure of the sustainability of life on this planet. The more species our planet can support, the more vitality our eco-system demonstrates. The loss of any given species might be ignored, but taken in totality our planet is beginning to lose it's ability to sustain life.

The polar bear, like the spotted owl before it, is becoming a symbol for a larger environmental issue. Instead of deforestation now, its global warming. The polar bear isn't dying off because of some internal dysfunction, it is dying off because we are losing ice at the polar caps. These are vital to human existence.

To conclude I would have to disagree with the commenter's premise. The idea that if an extinction doesn't affect man, man should take no action. Every extinction affects man, even if in a small way. Moreover, I especially disagree with using the Polar Bear as an example of this premise, because its health is barometer of the health of the ice caps. If they melt, humans are in for a world of hurt.

A call to (polar) bear arms

Possibly missed in the fray among presidential endorsements, earthquakes and cyclones, the US government took an extraordinary step and placed the Polar Bear on the endangered species list. 

Determining that the bear's natural habitat is disappearing and rapid declines in it's population are imminent, the government moved to put the bear on the list. Once a species goes on the list, the government is supposed to enact actions to protect the natural habitat of the creature and protect it from it's unnatural endangerment. 

The case of the polar bear is unique and could be a landmark case for the legislation and for the government's stance on climate change. The science that documented the loss of natural habitat of the polar bear is essentially global warming science. Therefore to save the polar bear the US government is mandated to take action on global warming to protect the bear. There seem to be legal actions underway to prevent such actions, but the really paralyzing thing is no one really knows what to do to repair the arctic and reverse global warming. Slowing it down seems to be problematic enough. For a complete report on the state of the polar bear and legislation attempting to protect it head here.