Climate change: Obama administration pulls habitat-lifeline from endangered polar bears

On Tuesday, in the waning days of Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar’s reign, a special rule modified after the ESA amendment originated by the Bush administration, was adapted by the Obama administration. The measure doesn’t allow occurrences outside the immediate habitat of an endangered species to be considered for regulation.

According to Center for Biological Diversity assessment, the special rule means that ESA can’t be used as an additonal tool to curb pollution spewing from smoke stakes far away from polar bear habitat, although such carbon-loaded emissions are conclusively linked to global warming and the melting of Artic sea ice.