PORTLAND, Ore. — Shell Oil is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer and asked a federal appeals court Thursday to rule quickly on a challenge by environmentalists concerned about the risk of a major spill after the Gulf of Mexico disaster. more »

According to adn.com, for$16 an hour, Morgan VanHatten patrolled the streets of Kaktovik in a Ford pickup last fall armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and an iPhone full of Lil Wayne. Her mission: Shoo away the many polar bears that creep into town at the brink of whaling season. more »

Putin visited the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land, 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, as part of Russia’s drive to reassert its presence in the resource-rich region, now opening up to commercial exploration because of melting ice. more »

OTTAWA, Canada — It was supposed to be a meeting of polar pals. But a high-level session on the dramatic climate changes in the Arctic turned chilly Monday, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rapped Canada for leaving out several players, says post-gazette.com more »

According to sentinelsource.com, AU.N. organization that regulates wildlife trade voted Thursday against bans on hunting polar bears threatened by shrinking Arctic ice and on fishing for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species that can grow to nearly 1,400 pounds and is prized in Japan for sushi and sashimi.

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DOHA, Qatar — A U.S.-backed proposal to ban the international trade of polar bear skins, teeth and claws was defeated Thursday at a U.N. wildlife meeting over concerns it would hurt indigenous economies and arguments the practice didn’t pose a significant threat to the animals, says google.com more »

Melting sea ice in the Arctic will kill thousands of bears in coming years, the US says, and continued commercial trade must not be allowed to make the situation worse, says guardian.co.uk

It is a familiar story in the climate change debate. The US government is at odds with the rest of the world and, despite criticism, wants other countries to change their minds and fall in line behind Uncle Sam. more »

According topostchronicle.com, throughout the last several decades, one of the environmentalist left’s trademark tactics has been to use symbolism instead of substance. This, as any thinking person already knows, is due to the fact that the extreme left, as it becomes ever more extreme, finds it increasingly difficult to push its agenda based on its own merit. This leaves them little choice but to use smoke and mirrors to foist their remarkably bad ideas on the rest of us. more »