10,000 Birds

Organisation: The Center for Biological Diversity. www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/index.html/

Who are we? The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is North America’s Premier Endangered Species Advocate. We have obtained federal Endangered Species Act protection for 349 species and the designation of over 43 million acres of “critical habitat” from Texas to Alaska protecting our coasts, oceans, deserts, forests, rivers and grasslands. The Center for Biological Diversity is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Aims of the Organisation: At the Center we believe that the health and vigor of human societies and the integrity and wildness of the natural environment are closely linked. Beyond their extraordinary intrinsic value, animals and plants, in their distinctness and variety, offer irreplaceable emotional and physical benefits to our lives and play an integral part in culture. Their loss, which parallels the loss of diversity within and among human civilizations, impoverishes us beyond repair.

Combining conservation biology with litigation, policy advocacy, and an innovative strategic vision, the CBD is working to secure a future for animals and plants hovering on the brink of extinction, for the wilderness they need to survive, and by extension for the spiritual welfare of generations to come.

Membership: Our success depends on the commitment and generosity of over 35,000 members . . . people like you who care about protecting wildlife, deserts, forests and rivers for generations to come. As a member, you will receive our quarterly action alerts, as well as other mailings to keep you informed about current legislative decisions, environmental concerns, and volunteer opportunities. If you would like to receive our online Biodiversity Alerts featuring regular updates on the Center’s work, send us your e-mail address and we’ll sign you up! It’s simple, it’s easy, and it means the difference between life and death for many plants and animals.

Conservation: The Center for Biological Diversity is dedicated to protecting endangered species and wild places through science, policy, education, and environmental law. Current conservation work include campaigns to stop dams being built in the Panama Biosphere Reserve, to change the regulation that governs management of the sole wild population of Mexican Gray Wolves, and to have the Polar Bear listed as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act (see below).

Contact us:
Center for Biological Diversity
PO Box 710
Tucson AZ 85702-0710
(520) 623-5252 ext.312
TOLL-FREE TEL: 866-357-3349
membership@biologicaldiversity.org

Website: www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/index.html/

Additional Info:

Polar bears are at risk of extinction as global warming melts away their Arctic sea-ice habitat. Without enough sea ice to sustain them and their prey, polar bears are having a tough time finding enough food and increasingly are found in the open ocean having drowned far from ice and land. Many scientists speculate that the polar bears are traveling greater and greater distances in search of sea ice and their favorite prey, ringed seals, but instead end up exhausted in the middle of the vast open ocean—an ocean that was once solid ice. Because the bears are deeply dependent on sea ice for their survival, they stand to become the first mammals in the world to lose 100 percent of their habitat to global warming.

But there’s still hope.

On February 16, 2005, the same day the Kyoto Protocol entered into force without the participation of the United States, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a scientific petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. If the polar bear is listed as an endangered species, then the U.S. government will be forced to address the bear’s disappearing habitat. Very soon, in either late December or early January 2008, USFWS will determine whether the polar bear deserves endangered species protections. You can learn more about polar bears, the Endangered Species Act, and global warming at the Center for Biological Diversity’s website, http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/polarbear/index.html

60 Second Sell written by Charlie Moores from information provided by Josephine Johnson (Internet Organiser, CBD). Additional Info: Polar Bears written by Josephine Johnson (Internet Organiser, CBD). Photographs copyright Kassie Siegel 2007 (used with permission).

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