In a move that will have profound consequences not only for the polar bear but potentially for America’s polluting industries, the Administration declared last night that the polar bear should be added to its endangered species list because of the drastic melting of its habitat.

The move would trigger mandatory legal safeguards that could potentially force US industries to cut their carbon dioxide output.

Dirk Kempthorne, the Interior Secretary, said: “We are concerned the polar bear’s habitat may literally be melting.”

By placing the polar bear under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the US Government must prevent any activity that could further jeopardise the animal or its habitat. Environmentalists hope that the move will therefore compel the Administration to force US industries into cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The move also reflects a significant departure for the Administration from its cautious rhetoric about the effects of global warming.

President Bush has been reluctant to accept that global warming is a man-made phenomenon.

Last night’s announcement was the latest sign that the White House is moving towards the views of most scientists and Western leaders, including Tony Blair, that industrial pollutants are a significant cause of the world’s rising temperature.

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, shrinking the sea ice and making it increasingly difficult for the world’s 22,000 to 25,000 polar bears to survive. Without ice, bears cannot hunt for seals and must swim huge distances to find hunting grounds.

Experts say that the bears are losing weight as their hunting grounds diminish, making it even harder for them to hunt and reproduce. In northern Canada, females that once averaged 620lb (281kg) are down to 485lb. Scientists also say that bears are drowning during long swims from ice to land, and a rise in cannibalism is another sign of how desperate the bears’ search for food has become.

In a stark warning this year, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre said that the total Arctic ice cover had melted back to the lowest level in modern records, and that if melting rates continued apace the summertime Arctic could be ice-free within 80 years.

Last year three environmental groups sued the US Government to force it to review the status of the polar bear. Andrew Wetzler, a lawyer for one of them, the Natural Resources Defence Council, said: “It’s such a loud recognition that global warming is real. It is rapidly threatening the polar bear and, in fact, an entire ecosystem with utter destruction.”

America has come under increasing pressure to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. But Mr Bush, who refuses to recognise the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, has balked at setting any mandatory environmental limits on US industries.

After proposing the polar bear for threatened status, the US Interior Department will allow 90 days of public comment on the proposal. If the animal is then added to the endangered species list, all US government agencies will be obliged by law to consider if their actions are adding to global warming.

“This is a victory for the polar bear, and all wildlife threatened by global warming,” Kassie Siegel, a lawyer for the Centre for Biological Diversity, said. “There is still time to save polar bears, but we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately.”

Giant of the Arctic

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