Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

US Lists Polar Bear as Threatened But Balks at New Protection

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Published on Thursday, May 15, 2008 by Environmental News Service (ENS)
US Lists Polar Bear as Threatened But Balks at New Protection
by J.R. Pegg

The Bush administration reluctantly declared the polar bear a threatened species yesterday, concluding that the loss of Arctic sea ice has put the future of the iconic species in peril. But the administration also took steps to ensure the decision will not require new efforts to tackle global warming or put new restrictions on oil and gas development in polar bear habitat.

The announcement ends a three-year legal dispute over whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the impact of global warming on its Arctic habitat. Three conservation groups first filed a petition requesting the decision in 2005.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed a January deadline to issue a decision and was under a court order to finalize its decision by Thursday.

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U.S. Trusting Oil Companies to Safeguard Arctic Wildlife

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2008  9:53 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
 
U.S. Trusting Oil Companies to Safeguard Arctic Wildlife
Industry Permit Plans Not Subjected to Required Peer-Review or Monitoring 
 
WASHINGTON, DC – May 15 – Federal agencies issued permits for oil exploration in vast areas of the Arctic Ocean without verifying industry claims or imposing required safeguards against damage to wildlife, according to agency e-mails released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Intense political pressure to speed Arctic leasing coupled with tardy industry submission of any data resulted in official rubber-stamping of permit applications without review or plans for follow-up.

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Global Wildlife Populations ‘Plummeting’

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Friday, 16 May 2008 03:31 UK
 
Wildlife populations ‘plummeting’ 
 
Over-fishing and demand for their fins as a delicacy have hit shark numbers
Between a quarter and a third of the world’s wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London.

Populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine by 28% and freshwater by 29%, it says.

Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the “great extinction episodes” in the Earth’s history is under way, it says.

Pollution, farming and urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting are blamed.

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Major Study: World’s Environment, Wildlife Already Impacted by Climate Change

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Published on Thursday, May 15, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
World’s Wildlife and Environment Already Hit by Climate Change, Major Study Shows
by Ian Sample

Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world’s ecosystems.

Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures driven by human activity.

Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.

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