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Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that the globe is warming so rapidly that the polar bears of Alaska are officially classified as a threatened species. "The polar bear is on thin ice," NBC's Anne Thompson could not resist reporting. How did Daniel Sieberg report it on CBS? "The long-term future of this Arctic icon is on thin ice." He explained how polar bears depend on the ice cap: "It is their lifeline, their highway, essential for hunting seals and traveling." As Thompson put it, the bears "use the ice to catch the seals they feed on." So what will the Interior Department do to conserve the melting ecosystem on which the polar bears depend? It will not restrict emissions of greenhouse gases. Environmentalists responded by labeling the listing "an empty victory," according to Thompson…"this action lacks any bite," was Sieberg's paraphrase.
