[The dawn of the Industrial Revolution was hundreds of years ago; why aren't these bears dead yet?]: Alaska oil explorers encountering more polar bears | Green Business | Reuters

There were 321 polar bear sightings in and around Alaska oil and gas operations in 2007 and 313 in 2008, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That is about four times the annual average posted for the period of 1994 through 2000.

New polar bear rule sent to White House | Reuters

Obama administration Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on May 8 that the melting of polar bear habitat is "an environmental tragedy of the modern age."
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Asked about the new proposed rule, John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation said the Obama administration needs to be more "honest with the science than the previous administration."

"There is extremely strong link between climate change and the decline of the polar bear, and if we hope to conserve the polar bear for future generations, we're going to have to take some strong steps to reduce the non-climate stressors ... the chief one would be oil and gas development," Kostyack said in a telephone interview.

Art Horn - Global Warming is Neither

The 1960s population estimation of polar bears was 5,000. Today that number is 25,000.

Featured interview: U.S. lawyer John Jackson on polar bear hunt | MoreCanadian

MoreCanadian.com: Do you think polar bears should be on the endangered species list in the first place?

John Jackson: No, they should not. The listing was premature and too all-encompassing. Why deprive native people of their most valuable resource decades before projected ice melt, including areas where summer meltdown is not forecasted? Most if not all of the bear today will have died of natural causes before the projected ice melt. At least half of the bear are in areas not projected to melt in the summer. Many bear do well without summer ice, like the Davis Strait population which is increasing and has never had summer ice. Many learned meteorologists believe that the 11 year long solar cycles are important and that we will be in an unpleasantly cold period by 2020. Many areas will improve for that 11-year period. Much of the Arctic ice has been too thick and permanent to support bear and prey and should improve as it warms.