Guess what the Bush Administration left out when it granted "Threatened Species" protection to the polar bear?

The protection!

Instead of being a lifeline for polar bears, this plan abandons them to the ravages of global warming. It will NOT help save the polar bear from extinction -- because it refuses to crack down on global warming polluters and will do nothing to stop Big Oil's invasion of polar bear habitat.

We must not let this decision stand. The Bush Administration's abandonment of the polar bear isn’t just cruel -- it's illegal.

That's why I urge you to make a special emergency donation so that NRDC and our allies can fight the Bush Administration in federal court and win full-fledged protection for the polar bear.

With polar bears starving and drowning...and scientists predicting that two-thirds could be extinct by 2050...the best available science leaves no doubt that these magnificent Arctic creatures are in grave danger.

By law, our government is obligated to protect them from threats to their survival.

But when the Secretary of the Interior announced his plan two weeks ago, he made it clear that he would not lift a finger to safeguard polar bears from global warming and Arctic oil development.

And so the very next day, NRDC and our allies took the Bush Administration back to court -- and this summer, we'll be waging an all-out legal fight to win uncompromising protection for these suffering bears.

It won't be easy, because Big Oil and corporate polluters aren't going to let polar bears get in the way of their profits without putting up a fight.

That's why we're counting on you to help.

Time is short. And the polar bear and its Arctic home are under siege. Many scientists are predicting that the loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer could shatter previous records.

And the oil giants will soon begin industrializing the polar bear's home with noisy oil rigs, miles of pipelines, and the deadly specter of catastrophic oil spills.

Your donation will help NRDC turn back Big Oil's invasion...force the government to safeguard the polar bear's critical habitat...and start taking measures to turn down the heat on global warming pollution.

Please give the polar bear a fighting chance as we enter this next critical round of the battle for its very survival.

There's roughly twice as many polar bears in the world today as thirty years ago. But on May 14th U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, invoking the US Endangered Species Act, proclaimed polar bears as a "threatened species." In 1972 the creatures had already lost value in the US when the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibited their hunting in Alaska. (And no, it's not the hunting ban that caused their increased numbers; they proliferated equally in Canada which continued the polar bear season.)

After 1972 US hunters started hunting polar bears in Canada. But Kempthorne's recent proclamation means that US hunters will be barred by law from bringing their trophy bear skins into the US, so again Polar Bears have lost value. Lately hunters (primarily from the US) have been paying $30,000 for the chance of whacking a polar bear during a grueling hunt in the Canadian arctic on dogsleds and in subzero weather. If successful, then the hunter's taxidermist landed another $5,000 or so for converting the beast's epidermis into an infuriatingly politically-incorrect rug for the hunter to display to his politically-correct guests at dinner parties. Generally speaking, the most spirited reactions from guests came after uncorking the eighth bottle of wine.

Most of these guests were usually his wife's friends from the local Art Council and Kayak Club and spittle sometimes landed on his valuable rug of thick white fur, but without lasting damage. The often lipstick-smeared sprayings quickly evaporated and whatever effort was involved in wiping them up was well worth the spectacle of pulsating veins on pretty crimson-hued foreheads with earrings jangling below from the bobbing motions, along with the slender, perfumed (but always white-knuckled) fists constantly thrust to within millimeters of his nose.

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