Flocke “Snowflake” The German Polar Bear Baby

Last month, the Bush administration declared polar bears a threatened species because of global warming.This month, the administration gave permission for companies to “annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas,” the Associated Press reported Saturday. The article reported the Fish and Wildlife Service as having already issued regulations for legal protection of seven oil companies with a provision that only “small numbers” of polar bears and Pacific walruses be harmed in the process.......

Last month, polar bears were given protected status when they were listed as threatened by Dirk Kempthorne, the Interior Secretary.

However, Mr Kempthorne specified that the declining amount of sea ice - which the bears use for mating, denning and hunting - was caused by the warming Arctic climate and not by oil development.

But environmental groups do not agree. With soaring petrol prices now the biggest single economic issue for many Americans, the government has been under intense pressure to free up Alaska for oil exploration.

The state's outer continental shelf was long thought too remote and costly to drill. BP and Shell are among those investing heavily in Alaskan exploration......