Polar bears spend most of their time roaming the Arctic on large chunks of floating ice. Yet that ice — so crucial for the bears' survival — is now melting under their feet due to global warming.

Over the past three decades, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk by a size equivalent to six Californias. As the sea ice disappears, scientists are finding more evidence of polar bear drownings, starvation and cub deaths.

Unless we take effective action now, the polar bear will likely become extinct in Alaska by 2050.

NRDC Members and environmentalists worldwide had hoped the Obama Administration would come to the polar bear's rescue.

But instead, Interior Secretary Salazar has cut the polar bear's lifeline by adopting a Bush era policy that prevents the government from using vital Endangered Species Act protections to save the polar bear from the two deadliest threats it faces: global warming and Arctic oil development.

Letting these disastrous loopholes stay in place is like sending a leaky lifeboat to save drowning polar bears. It won't protect them — and may even accelerate their rapid slide toward extinction.

NRDC is fighting in court to block this dangerous and illegal plan and win uncompromising protection for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. But polar bears also need protections outside U.S. borders. In the last decade, trophy hunters in Canada have killed 600 polar bears, and hundreds more have been killed for commercial export. We’re fighting to stop trophy hunting and the global trade in polar bear parts by pushing for tougher international protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Obama Administration has already announced it would support greater protection for polar bears under CITES.

Thanks to the past support of NRDC Members and online activists, NRDC has made extraordinary progress in our campaign to save the polar bear. As a result of three years of legal pressure — and our grassroots Polar Bear S.O.S. campaign — the Bush Administration was forced to protect the polar bear as a "threatened species."

This hard-won "threatened species" status should give us leverage to win stronger protections for the bear, despite the opposition of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and formidable industry allies.

Tell the Interior Secretary to give the polar bear and its Arctic habitat full-fledged protection.