Alaska Says Climate Change is no Threat to Polar Bears, Opposes Protection - International Business Times

The state of Alaska will appeal a federal judge's ruling that continues to list the polar bear as a threatened species. In a notice filed Friday, the state argued that the bears have successfully survived past climate changes.

The threatened species status of the polar bear was upheld by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in June, after the state of Alaska sued the federal government in 2008 over the Bush administration's decision to protect polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. The listing was based on the warning by the Department of the Interior that warming of the Arctic climate and the melting of sea ice was threatening the polar bear's habitat.

Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, said the world population of polar bears has grown from a low of between 8,000 and 10,000 in the late 1960s to the current count of about 20,000 to 25,000. "The Endangered Species Act was not intended for species that are healthy with populations that have more than doubled in the last 40 years," Parnell said.