Polar bears are very hard to ignore. They are, to flagrantly misapply the famous words of Yogi, "not just your average bear". They're self-contradictory - the ultimate in ... um... polarity. For example, they live in one of the coldest places on earth, and yet they're the biggest land carnivore on the planet (albeit if disputed). Also, despite the combination of their sheer size and the fact that they're the most carnivorous of all the world's bears (i.e. the most likely to eat humans - and they do), they're also arguably the cutest - featuring on wall calendars worldwide, and in cutsey positions and perspectives that would make even the most effeminate male bear cringe with embarrassment. I mean, how can an animal with 4 inch claws, and which can take your head off with a couple of swipes of its paws, be so darned cute? But damn, they just are.

They're so hard to ignore, in fact, that even President Bush in his oval office has had to sit up and take notice. There's nothing more pitiful, you see, than the thought of a hungry polar bear heading out in early spring after fasting for weeks, or months, just to drown after breaking through thin ice - where thin ice shouldn't be. Things are getting so tough for the polar bear that reports of cannibalism are even filtering through.

Almost a year ago The Independent posted an article - 'Starving polar bears shame Bush to act' - which outlined the pressure the Bush administration was under over our fine furry friends. It's taken a while, but today I'm happy to announce that The Independent have now been able to follow up with 'Bush embraces the endangered polar bear - and accepts the dangers of global warming'.

The title of the latter of these two Independent stories gives us an inkling into why it's taken a while to make this decision. To admit the polar bear is in trouble is effectively admitting that global warming is a very real threat - a step the Bush administration has been loathe to make. We could be tempted to get excited at this point, as opening this door of admission is tantamount to acknowledging a whole host of up-until-now disputed scientific concerns.

It's ironic that despite our unintentional mistreatment of the polar bear, the polar bear may, equally unwittingly, be the cause of our, as a society, getting somewhat of a reprieve.

In a move that is delighting environmentalists, the Department of Interior is announcing a new proposal to designate the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The move settles a lawsuit brought by three environmental groups — the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity — and while the resolution itself was not a stunner, the implications of it are: The government must effectively own up to global warming as the likely cause of the problem. For a White House that has long questioned whether human-influenced climate change exists at all, this is a shift not just in policy, but in the very foundations of its environmental orthodoxy.

It's no secret that polar bears are in very deep trouble, and have been for a while. There are only between 20,000 and 25,000 of them left in the world, divided among 19 populations in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Russia and elsewhere. Perhaps the best studied of the groups is the Western Hudson Bay population, which scientists have been monitoring since the 1960s. For decades, membership of the group remained relatively stable, at about 1,200 adults and cubs. Between 1987 and 1994, however — precisely the years in which the rise in global temperatures have become the most evident — the number plummeted to 935, or a die-off of 22%. And that is only one of the five overall polar bear populations listed as declining by the multinational World Conservation Union.

Polar bears, like humanity, are treading on thin ice.

It's not just the fact that the bears are dying that's so alarming, but the way they're dying — and all of it points to a warmer world. Spring ice that the bears rely on as fishing platforms has been breaking up about three weeks earlier than it used to. Though polar bears don't hibernate, they do retreat to dens in the winter to escape bad weather. When they emerge, they badly need to replenish their fat supplies, and slashing three weeks off the dining schedule does not help. Scientists who track bear populations report that fewer cubs are surviving into adulthood — never mind the ones that aren't getting born at all — and those adults that are observed are often thinner than they used to be. Some bears have been resorting to cannibalism to survive and others are simply turning up drowned, trapped in open water as they try to paddle to ice floes that have melted away. In one month in 2005, more than 50 bears were observed swimming in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea.

Listing the bears as threatened could help a lot. The Endangered Species Act is a powerful one, throwing a big blanket of protection around any animal that comes under its care. Strict limits are put on damage that can be done to the species' habitat and the harm that individuals, including hunters, can do to any member of the protected group. Most powerful is the consultation clause, a provision of the law that requires the federal government to determine the impact of any actions it takes that might harm a protected species and modify its behavior accordingly.

"Say you want to build a coal-fired power plant in the Midwest," says Andrew Wetzler, senior attorney for the NRDC. "That requires a slew of federal permits and the polar bear would have to be considered." What's more, the clause requires the government to use the "best available science" in making these determinations, and at this point, the only available — or at least only responsible — science lays the polar bear problem squarely at the feet of global warming. - Time

The polar bear doesn't quite have the wardrobe to make it as superhero, but when you consider that he's representing a further 16,000 currently endangered species - he may be looked up to in more ways than one.

The Polar Bear stands at the head of a long list of endangered species, including this Harp Seal pup

Unfortunately, the bear, and his 16,000 friends, still have a lot of 'politics' to deal with yet. The reality is all the Bush Administration has done is accept the 'proposal' to designate the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The administration now has an entire year to study the proposal - and could potentially yet deny the bear his rightful place on the list.

So, just as the heat is being turned up on our noble northern buddy, we need to keep the heat on this issue and ensure the proposal is successfully pushed through - and as quickly as possible.

Further Reading (or watching):

• BBC Video