Feeling Bearish

One look at the headlines about the polar bear Endangered Species Act listing this morning is enough to put anyone in a sour mood. Not even the extensive amount of punning that this listing has provoked can cheer me up. My question is this:

IS IT REALLY ALL ABOUT MONEY, PEOPLE?!?

Now, believe me, I am completely aware that the conservation groups who got this cutie listed full well knew that it could shake up the "oiligarchy" that runs this country. Indeed, some might say that was the point.

Of course, it wasn't the only point. If we can wake people up about the polar bear- a fuzzy, endearing species - we could maybe, just maybe, get people to see that we're facing a similar fate.

Alas, even Alaska is less concerned about its long-term fate than it is about short-term oil revenues.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she's disappointed by a federal decision to list polar bears as a threatened species but relieved by the conclusion that the cause was not petroleum development, the mainstay of Alaska's economy.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne called Palin before his press conference Wednesday announcing the decision.

"It was reassuring to hear Secretary Kempthorne remind me also that he'll be acknowledging to all of America that it is not oil and gas developments that have such an adverse effect as to have led this decision for the threatened listing."

I wish he had called me before his press conference. I would have told him to stand up straight and be proud to do what's right for the planet- not effectively apologize to industry for following the ESA. He acted like his arm was being twisted by the science.

And it was, because the science was so compelling. Which, at the end of the day, isn't very good news at all. For any of us.