Nov 30, 2010/EIN Presswire/– More than 187,000 square miles along the northern coast of Alaska were declared a critical habitat for polar bears.
This was the result of a settlement in an continuing lawsuit of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace against the Department of the Interior.
The new designation falls under the Endangered Species Act and aims to protect lands and waters that are crucial for polar bear survival from industrial development.
Animal rights groups are also pressuring the Department of the Interior to change its categorization of polar bears from “threatened” to the more serious “endangered” so that the Endangered Species Act can be used to reduce greenhouse emissions.
The Department of the Interior issued a special ruling in 2008 stating that greenhouse emissions are exempt from regulation in polar bear territories. The Center for Biological Diversity is still in the process of challenging this ruling.
For more environmental news, visit Environmental News Today (http://environment.einnews.com), an environmental media monitoring service from EIN News.
