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Inquiry made into delayed polar bear decision, green groups sue

Posted at 10:02 AM on 10 Mar 2008

Let's check in on the latest polar bear shenanigans, shall we? Two months after deadline, the Interior Department still has made no decision on whether Ursus maritimus should be listed as a threatened species. Spurred by a critical letter from environmental groups, the agency's inspector general has begun preliminary inquiries into why the decision is taking so long. Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity, and NRDC will also file a lawsuit on Monday to get the agency to hurry up -- in hopes, of course, of a decision favoring protection. And Eskimos in Alaska and Canada continue to protest that the bears are in fact thriving, and that listing them would threaten the livelihoods of subsistence hunters.

sources: Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal (access ain't free), USA Today

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Inuit

I believe the proper term is Inuit, not Eskimo.

by Karina at 2:39 PM on 10 Mar 2008

Eskimos need to shut their pie holes!

Eskimos in Alaska and Canada need to shut their pie holes, and stop killing seals and polar bears!

Infact, I don't even think it is the Eskimos/iniuts, - whatever, that are pushing for the anti polar bears, I think it is the oils companines and they need an excue so they use the Eskimos for their agenda!

Honestly, people just stop the madness of: KILL, KILL, KILL.

It feels like, humans are not going to be happy until they kill every single animal, and then they'll start killing their own grandmothers!

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

by javaearth at 7:47 PM on 10 Mar 2008

Inuit vs. Eskimo

The related Arctic peoples who for many thousands of years have lived from western Alaska to Greenland traditionally were called "Eskimo" (French, "Esquimaux") by Europeans and their American descendants. That is not a word in their own language, however, and not the way they refer to themselves.

"Inuit" is the name preferred especially by these peoples in Canada. But I think it can be used for all of them generally. "Greenland Eskimo" are culturally and linguistically distinct, so that name is still in use. And in the far West of the region, around the mouth of the Yukon, the Yup'ik are often referred to as "Yup'ik Eskimo." The people who live along the north and northwest coast of Alaska are called Inupiat.

Erik Hoffner recently recommended to me a powerful and vivid novel, "Ordinary Wolves," by Seth Kantner, which I am just finishing. It gives a depressing glimpse of the thoroughly degraded and self-destructive society of one Inupiat location, written by a man with a keen eye who has lived in that region a long time. One aspect of the Inupiat life that he presents is how the thoroughgoing traditional reliance on constantly hunting and killing wild animals has been corrupted by the introduction of such modern technological items as snowmobiles and airplanes. According to Kantner, these Inupiat at least are no longer living in anything that might be called a respectful balance with the wild animals around them.

Polar bears do not figure in Kantner's book. But my understanding is that the Inuit of Nunavut, including the settlements around Hudson Bay, have observed many polar bears concentrated near them, and wish to capitalize by encouraging a trophy hunting industry. In fact, it seems the bears are not really more plentiful; it is just that the effects of climate change are driving them into reduced areas of their range.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:42 PM on 10 Mar 2008

Role Models

Indigenous people living far from the tropics are not the ecologically correct people some imagine. Humans have no fur because we evolved in the tropics, and the farther we move from those warm areas, the more environmental and ecological harm we do. In order to live where it's so cold, people have to consume huge amounts of meat, which eventually causes kidney failure, or immense amounts of energy for artificial heat, or both. Either way, the Inuit are not people I would hold up as being ecologically correct.

by Wolverine at 6:26 PM on 11 Mar 2008

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