Years of controversy, endless discussions and lawsuits paid off for the polar bears, at least on paper, as they’ve been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But what does this decision do for them? This could be considered nothing more than a moral victory for conservationists, because the polar bear is probably not going to feel any pluses any time soon.

The idea of such a decision would normally be to protect them and their environment. Just by taking a logical approach on the situation, the polar bear, which is now a protected animal, lives in an unprotected environment, which means the decision to declare it an endangered species is not quite as “protective” as we would expect.

Earlier this year, when the Fish and Wildlife Services failed to meet yet another deadline for the polar bear situation, the U.S. Interior Department did manage to make a quick decision when asked to analyze whether an oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea would affect the natural habitat of the bear. And, as “strange” as it may seem, they said it’s perfectly safe! So much for protecting the bears…

The Chukchi Sea oil exploration and the delay of the Fish and Wildlife Services to declare the polar bear as an endangered species have had what one would call a ‘perfect timing’. Environmental issues have been left aside as it appears, by giving green light to an oil exploration that will most certainly not help the bears… Which makes us wonder: are the lives of a couple of polar bears as valuable as an oil business? For us, they are, for the U.S. officials…well, that’s a totally different story.

As the bear habitat is shrinking, and the bear faces nothing more than extinction, we all witness decisions on papers that do nothing much in reality. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said after the bear was listed as threatened that he won’t allow the decision to become an instrument for activist groups to force the adoption of greenhouse emission regulations for automobile, power plants or any other sources in a similar manner (by lawsuit).

What’s to understand of this? The decision was obviously forced. And it’s hard to imagine why, as scientists never got tired of issuing alarm signals on the disastrous effects global warming, that we are responsible for, has on habitats such as that of the polar bear.