Long-delayed Trump administration study finds that climate change threatens polar bears
Source: Washington Post
Long-delayed Trump administration study finds that climate change threatens polar bears
U.S. Geological Survey Director James Reilly told staff that he wanted to be “satisfied” with the science underlying the report
By Juliet Eilperin
10/2/2020, 7:55:54 p.m.
After stalling for months, a top Trump official released a polar bear study by government scientists Friday that highlights the endangered animals’ vulnerability to climate change and the fact that proposed oil drilling in Alaska would probably encroach on their habitat, causing more stress.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that U.S. Geological Survey Director James Reilly had taken the highly unusual step of delaying the new analysis of the population of polar bears living on the coast of the southern Beaufort Sea, despite the fact that it had been reviewed by independent researchers and approved by top agency scientists.
In response to the Post report, Reilly sent an email to his staff the next day, saying his decision to delay was justified because he wanted to be “satisfied” with its underlying science before making it public.
The study, which had been obtained by The Post last month, notes that shrinking sea ice in the Arctic threatens the survival of polar bears while enhancing the opportunity for fossil fuel exploration there. “The long-term persistence of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) is threatened by sea-ice loss due to climate change, which is concurrently providing an opportunity in the Arctic for increased anthropogenic activities including natural resource extraction,” it said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been seeking the report’s release for at least three months, according to several individuals briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The agency is legally required to cite the U.S. Geological Survey study before it can determine whether drilling can proceed on ConocoPhillips’ $3 billion Willow Project on Alaska’s North Slope without causing too much harm to the region’s polar bears, which are protected by federal law.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/10/02/drilling-polar-bears/
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