Polar bears are the best animal mascots to come along in, well, maybe ever; whales, lynxes and spotted owls should all fire their agents. Global warming is a great start, but I see big things for polar bears — you wanna be in pictures, kid? Polar bears are so cuddly that even if I was getting torn apart by one, I think I'd be yelling "you're ...sooo... cuuute...must.... give...savings ...to... IPCC...aaaaaghggh!" with my dying breath.
But ExxonMobil recently funded research into the impact of climate change on polar bear populations. The researchers, including Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, contradicted previous research and took a big dump on Al Gore's PowerPoint presentations by concluding that polar bears aren't threatened. The results were published as "viewpoint" and not peer-reviewed, which has naturally drawn the ire of the scientific community and the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology. From NewScientist:
If the polar bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act, steps to protect its habitat could directly hurt ExxonMobil's economic interests, subcommittee chair Brad Miller wrote in an open letter to the oil giant.
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