Polar Bear Habitat Threatened by Drilling Leases in Alaska

It's been said that polar bears are now the poster-species for global warming. The Bush Administration may declare them endangered. But while that decision is pending, the Minerals Management Service has sold oil leases in marine habitat used by one of Alaska's two polar bear populations. Royal Dutch Shell was the high bidder today for oil leases in the Chuckchi Sea off the northwest shore of Alaska, an area slightly smaller than the State of Pennsylvania. Brad Knickerbocker writes for the Christian Science Monitor.