A black-and-white issue

A confrontation between big oil and environmentalists opens today in Alaska when America invites bids for millions of acres of polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea, where 15 billion barrels of crude oil lie waiting to be tapped. Bidding will get under way days before a ruling on whether the animal, the poster child for the ravages of global warming, should be added to the list of endangered species.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service was supposed to make that decision in January but postponed the ruling by a month, saying that the matter needed more examination. Environmentalists have accused the Government of delaying the polar bear’s designation deliberately for fear of complicating the sell-off.


Native Alaskans and environmentalists will be in court to try to halt the sale, while Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, is trying to push legislation through the Senate to insist that the bear’s status is settled before the auction can begin.

Brandon Frazier, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: