Endangered Status Sought for Polar Bears

The polar bear, an icon of the great white north, is in peril, its icy home melting beneath its paws, an environmental group argued Wednesday in formally petitioning the Bush administration to grant the animals protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which made the plea on the day the Kyoto Protocol to address global warming went into effect without the United States, said it did not believe the Bush administration would agree with its 154-page argument.

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