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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Environment minister questions polar bears' peril

Prentice, agreement at odds on effects of climate change

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 03/20/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Canada is home to 60 per cent of all polar bears. (PAUL J. RICHARDS / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES)

OTTAWA -- Climate change may not be all bad for polar bears, Canada's environment minister said Thursday.

Just as officials from his department committed Canada to an international agreement that says climate change has negatively affected the famous beasts and is the No. 1 threat facing them today, Jim Prentice said the science is still not clear what the impact actually is.

"I don't think anyone disagrees the whole process of climate change has implications for polar bears," Prentice said. "What those implications are is still under scientific investigation. It could be positive, it could be negative."

Environment officials were in Norway this week meeting with the other four polar bear nations -- Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States -- to discuss the bears' situation. It was the first meeting of the group since 1981.

After the three-day meeting, they signed an agreement that states the effects of climate change, particularly the shrinking sea ice, "constitutes the most important threat to polar bear conservation."

"The parties agreed that long-term conservation of polar bears depends upon successful mitigation of climate change," reads the summary document from the meeting.

The countries also agreed to look at a number of issues affecting polar bear habitat, including increased tourism, shipping, and oil and gas exploration and development in the Arctic.

The agreement is not legally binding on any nation, but Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said it puts pressure on Prentice to develop a more strict plan to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, because Canadians won't like the idea that climate change is contributing to the demise of the beloved creature. "The polar bear is a Canadian icon," McGuinty said.

Peter Ewens, director of species conservation with the World Wildlife Fund Canada, says he believes the agreement commits Canada to take "any and all measures to protect polar bears."

Prentice said nobody can accuse him of ignoring the polar bear's plight, noting it was he who called for a polar bear summit, held in Winnipeg in January.

He said Canada has particular responsibility for the bears because it is home to 60 per cent of the world's population.

The situation for the polar bear population has been disputed by different groups and differs depending on where the bears live.

Canada has 13 different subpopulations of polar bears, and the WWF considers five of the 13 groups to be declining in population. Five are stable and the others don't have enough data for that to be determined. The bears, which have made Churchill a tourist destination, are part of the Western Hudson Bay subgroup, a population that is declining and considered at very high risk.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 20, 2009 A7

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