There is at present an open U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Public comment period for the proposed critical habitat for the polar bear.
Polar bears have become the canary in the coal mine for climate change, as more and more are seen struggling in open waters of the melting Arctic Ocean. If current conditions continue, experts believe the entire Arctic polar bear population could disappear by 2050.
The Interior Department has proposed more than 200,000 square miles of America's Arctic as polar bear critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. But those protections are meaningless if oil drilling is allowed inside their critical habitat.