A weakened Environmental Species Act may hasten the day when polar bears can only be seen in books.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The Bush administration is eliminating a key regulation in the Endangered Species Act that requires an independent, science-based review before starting federal projects that could harm threatened animal or plant species.

THE DETAILS: The changes will go into effect just days before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, and were described by current Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne as “commonsense modifications.” Under the current law, if a project planned by a government agency (such as the Army Corps of Engineers) could harm species on the endangered list, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service expert biologists are supposed to step in to analyze the situation. That could nix the building of dams or highways, or the leasing of land for drilling or mining, where endangered species live. Removing this check will allow agencies to decide for themselves if there’s a risk to endangered wildlife.

The new rules also dampen hope for banning drilling in the Arctic and regulating greenhouse-gas emissions that lead to melting ice caps and habitat destruction for threatened species like the polar bear. “Listing the polar bear as a threatened species can reduce avoidable losses of polar bears,” Kempthorne says in a statement. “But it should not open the door to use the ESA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources. That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the Endangered Species Act. ESA is not the right tool to set climate-change policy.” The Interior Department received more than 250,000 comments contesting the proposed rules during the 60-day comment period, but the administration’s rules were pushed through anyway.

WHAT IT MEANS: “This rule makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s most important wildlife protection law,” says Defenders of Wildlife executive vice president Jamie Rappaport Clark. “The polar bear doesn’t have time for political maneuvers. Its habitat is melting away, its food is becoming scarce, and the science is clear that the cause is global warming; yet the rule this administration released today affirms that little will be done to save the species from sure extinction.” To try and overturn the new regulations, Defenders of Wildlife is taking a three-pronged approach involving the courts, Congress, and the incoming administration. It could take the Obama administration at least 6 months to reverse the rules if Congress doesn’t take up the matter.

Here’s how you can do your part to protect plants and animals at risk of extinction:

• Sign the petition. Congress has the power to pass legislation reversing this order; a Change.org petition is targeting lawmakers to do so as soon as possible.

• Tell it to Obama. E-mail Obama’s transition team and tell them that reversing the last-minute rule change should be a priority.