By Marc Morano and Matthew Dempsey U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Minority Committee

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This report details the scientists debunking polar bear endangerment fears and features a sampling of the latest peer-reviewed science detailing the natural causes of recent Arctic ice changes.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s.  A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations may now be near historic highs. The alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. And the methodology of these computer models is being challenged by many scientists and forecasting experts.

See the many recent peer-reviewed papers challenging these models and debunking this fear here.

UPDATE: See Senate testimony this week by Professor Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in front of the EPW as transribed by SPPI here.