The U.S. Interior Department is proposing that more than 200,000 square miles of land, sea, and ice in Alaska and nearby waters be given special protection to help preserve 3,500 polar bears threatened by the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice. The Interior Department has proposed designating the vast area as “critical habitat,” which means that any government agency or company must show that activities such as oil drilling and shipping will not affect the bears’ habitat or accelerate the extinction of the species. In 2008, the Interior Department declared that polar bears were threatened with extinction. Shell Oil this week was given permission to drill in the proposed protected area, and conservation groups have
criticized the Interior Department for not banning all oil and gas activity in the protected zone. Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its annual “Arctic Report Card” saying there is mounting evidence of widespread warming in the Arctic, including a drastic reduction in thick, multi-year sea ice; record-setting heat in Greenland and other parts of the Arctic; an unprecedented amount of freshwater on the surface of the Atlantic from melting ice; and growing evidence that Arctic warming is altering weather patterns in the northern hemisphere.