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.

In 2008, as a result of three years of legal pressure -- and our grassroots Polar Bear S.O.S. campaign -- the Bush Administration was forced to give limited protections to the polar bear as a "threatened species."

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

But instead, Interior Secretary Salazar 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.

Outside U.S. borders, polar bears also need protection. Canada kills about 300 polar bears a year for trophy hunting and to feed the international commercial trade in polar bear parts. NRDC activists demanded an end to the unnecessary killing of polar bears, but in March of 2010, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted down a proposal to ban the international commercial trade in polar bear parts and place additional restrictions on polar bear trophy hunting. Despite this setback, NRDC will continue its worldwide fight for tougher international protections for polar bears.

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