More time is required to decide if warming threats Polar Bear

Whether or not global warming poses a threat that is big enough to protect the polar bears under the Endangered Species Act, is a decision that remains pending as the federal officials have requested for more time to determine the same. Justifying their need for a time extension, the officials said that new data and public comment needs to be collected while the environmentalists swore to sue for quicker action.

The decision was to be taken at the latest by Wednesday, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it hoped to provide a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne so that he could decide by February.

Global warming has been a factor in proposing threatened status for any U.S. species for the first time, said Dale Hall, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service. That has added to the intricacy of the decision, he said.

Environmental groups that had appealed to protect polar bears contending that warming of the climate was making them vulnerable said they would go to court to ensure a timely decision. "We certainly hope that the polar bear will be listed within the next month," said Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Polar bears use sea ice as a platform for hunting seals, without which they would be thrown onto land, where their hunting skills are not as efficient. With the increasing melting of sea ice, the bears are being forced to swim long distances and footage of polar bears drowning has fueled serious concern over their fate.

According to the predictions of some climate scientists floating polar ice will fade away by middle of this century, leaving the animal without food and habitat. As much as Two-thirds of the population is at a risk of disappearance by 2050, said the scientists.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, as well as some congressional leaders have not taken the delay news well and have expressed suspicions that the delay would mean just an extension of 30 days.

"The Bush administration has squandered seven years denying the devastating scientific evidence of global warming," Kert Davies of Greenpeace USA said in a statement. "Stalling has cost us dearly, putting the polar bear at risk of extinction and jeopardizing the future welfare of billions of people around the world."