Anchorage Daily News

Polar bears join 'threatened' list

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday that the agency will list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, a decision that could cast the bears as the enduring symbol of the effects of global warming.

Senators blast polar bear's 'threatened' status

WASHINGTON -- Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday that the agency will list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, a decision that could cast the bears as the enduring symbol of the effects of global warming.

Listing disappoints state political, industry leaders

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How others are covering it

Politics blog: Congressional delegation reacts

Deadline approaches for polar bear decision

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne hasn't added a U.S. creature to the endangered species list since he took office two years ago. The former Idaho governor has until Thursday to decide on one that could prove troublesome to promising petroleum drilling off Alaska's northern coast and force federal agencies in other states to react to new greenhouse gas emissions.

More coverage of the polar bear debate

Senate rejects opening ANWR to drilling

The U.S. Senate rejected a Republican energy plan that promised to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

Developer fined for river threat

HOMER -- A local doctor whose subdivision roads risked washing dirt into a tributary of the Anchor River will pay a $27,600 fine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

Homer developer fined for threatening river

A local doctor whose subdivision roads risked washing dirt into a tributary of the Anchor River will pay a $27,600 fine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.

State makes erosion in villages a priority

State officials say they are ready to take a leadership role in protecting coastal villages threatened by the sea, committing millions of dollars in the state budget to a new list of priority erosion-control projects.

Polar bear ruling ordered

A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming.

More coverage of the polar bear debate

... but spring appears earlier in the West

Salmon and butterflies. Lilacs and honeysuckle. Marmots and robins. All of them are showing up earlier in the American West.

Distant sandstorms and fires create haze in Alaska skies

An off-white haze crept into the Anchorage region over the weekend, obscuring the Chugach Mountains with a smoglike quality more akin to a view of the Los Angeles skyline.

Decision to list Cook Inlet belugas delayed

The federal Fisheries Service announced Monday it wants one more population estimate on Cook Inlet beluga whales before deciding on their status.

Jet lab cruises Alaska skies as scientists study bits of pollution

Mike Cubison has been flying around in a haze for three weeks, by choice. The University of Colorado postdoctoral student grabs air samples from Alaska skies, and using a mass spectrometer, measures particles of pollution before obliterating them into constituent parts to determine what they're made of.

Government again delays decision on polar bears

The Department of the Interior wants 10 more weeks to decide whether polar bears should be listed as threatened or endangered, a delay conservation groups condemned as tied to the transfer of offshore petroleum leases.

Interior secretary dodges hearing

More coverage of the polar bear debate

Feds move toward drilling in right whale territory

The Bush administration took a first step today toward allowing oil and gas leasing in an area of the Bering Sea considered important for the recovery of the world's most endangered whale.

Photos: Marine life

Clean Water measure qualifies for ballot

The state announced Tuesday that the two versions of the Clean Water initiatives have enough valid signatures to qualify for the statewide election ballot in August.

Inspector probes delay over polar bear listing

The Interior Department's inspector general has begun a preliminary investigation into why the department has delayed for nearly two months a decision on listing the polar bear as threatened because of the loss of Arctic sea ice.

Study seeks air pollution sources

A study of air pollution in Alaska's second largest city will try to identify where the mixture of dust, soot, dirt and other airborne particles originates.

Kincaid cleanup targets vehicle graveyard

The dump site at the southern end of Kincaid Park has long been closed, but illegal dumping still occurs. Stolen vehicles and even the cars of people who drove over the cliff trying to commit suicide rest decaying at the base of a 400-foot bluff.

Slide show: Kincaid cleanup

Grants would aid erosion control

Gov. Sarah Palin is proposing to spend $1.1 million to help communities threatened by coastal erosion and other effects of climate change.

Political science

Ken Taylor, the Palin administration's point man on polar bears, has to muster the best science he can find to argue that Alaska's polar bears are in good shape and need no special protection from hypothetical doomsday scenarios.

Funding and review of Palin-touted study criticized

Sources for more information

More coverage of the polar bear debate

Begich to attend climate change conference

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich is heading to Nuuk, Greenland, for a four-day climate change conference.