sierraclub.org - sierra magazine - july/august 2012 - arctic - arctic ice: the other recession

Arctic Ice: The Other Recession

Florian Schulz photographs the wildlife at the top of the world

Photography by Florian Schulz, from To the Arctic | Text by M.P. Klier

The pagophilic polar bear, listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, is facing yet another new threat: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ruled that it's okay for Shell Oil to harass polar bears and walruses by "causing disruption of behavioral patterns, including, but not limited to, migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding, or sheltering but which does not have the potential to injure a marine mammal or marine mammal stock in the wild," while the company drills oil and gas wells in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

TAKE ACTION:

• Join the Sierra Club's fight to protect the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and the Western Arctic Reserve from oil drilling.
• Learn about the Club's work to protect the Arctic at Chill the Drills.

READ MORE:

• Bob Sipchen travels to Alaska and absorbs tales of warbles, bear peanuts, and a weird tattoo in the land of 24-hour sun, in "Big Beasts and Black Rock."
• Sierra celebrated the Arctic National Wildlife Reguge's 50th anniversary in "Liberty, Equality & Caribou."