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Alaska hunters fret about polar bear ruling

By Brian Harris

BARROW, Alaska (Reuters) - The U.S. decision to list polar bears as a threatened species has indigenous Alaskans like Aalak Nayakik worried that hunting the animals they rely on for food and warmth could be banned.

Standing on the edge of the receding sea ice-shelf offshore from Barrow, some 350 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Nayakik, a member of the Inupiat peoples who have inhabited northern Alaska for centuries, says polar bears are a staple food for his family.

"I like to eat bear meat almost every winter, can't go without it," he said. "It is almost like taking the cow away from the white folks."

The Bush administration's ruling on Wednesday left residents of the northernmost point in the United States uncertain about how their lives and customs will change.

Nayakik, who uses polar bear fur for his family's bedding, said news of the listing has him wondering if hunts will lead to sanctions or jail time.

He estimates that about 20 bears a year are killed by authorized Inupiat hunters in the Barrow area.

"The Inupiat have hunted the polar bear for years, not necessarily for trophy matters but for food, and the hide itself is used for clothing materials," said Barrow Mayor Michael Stotts.

"It is considered a delicacy. It is considered an honor in the Inupiat tradition to be able to capture and have a polar bear," he said.

The bears live only in the Arctic and depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals. The U.S. Geological Survey said two-thirds of the world's polar bears -- some 16,000 -- could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true.

THINNER ICE, AND LESS OF IT

In announcing the government's decision, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the global warming that has damaged the bears' habitat.

It is something that Barrow is all too familiar with.

"There is less (ice) and it's thinner. It is not really thick like it used to be," Nayakik, 47, said as he stood at the edge of the ice. "It is going to melt right away."

The new protection was not accompanied by any proposals to address climate change or drilling in the Arctic for the fossil fuels that spur the climate-warming greenhouse effect.

Throughout Barrow, a mostly native community of 4,500 people, there was fear that residents would shoulder an undue amount of the burden to protect the polar bear.

"Everyone needs to worry about it," said Nayakik's son Charlie, 14.

Television host Jeff Corwin, who was in Barrow filming a segment on polar bears for his "Animal Planet" show, said it would be unfair to leave Barrow solely responsible for protecting the polar bear.

"These are the iconic, apex pinnacle predator of these lands," he told Reuters. "I don't think one remote community can or should be saddled with responsibility for that species. It should be shared."

(Editing by Daisuke Wakabayashi, Mary Milliken and Xavier Briand)

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Two-mile-high urban termite mound to house planet's swarming humanity

"We’ve seen a whole slew of gigantic, volcano shaped, city-in-a-building towers, each promising to be the largest building in the world. First it was the wacky X-Seed design for Tokyo, and then even Norman Foster got into the game with his proposal for the massive ‘Crystal Island’ development in Moscow.

"Well now, architect Eugene Tsui is taking the gigantic volcano tower concept to a whole new eco level, by taking design inspiration from the natural world. His new design for the Ultima Tower – a 2-mile high Mt Doom-esque structure - borrows design principles from trees and other living ystem to reduce its energy footprint. We are always intrigued by architecture that uses biomimicry – the borrowing of principles from nature’s designs - and Tsui’s concept for this towering, ultra-dense urban development has certainly captured our attention with its thought-provoking design. (((Also, it looks completely insane... or at least it makes Frank Lloyd Wright's nuclear-powered "Mile-High" look like a piker.)))

"Population growth rates and rural-urban migration are creating a trend of chaotic urbanization that brings environmental, economic and social challenges. Within the next 7 years, 22 megacities across the globe are expected to have populations that exceed 10 million people, according to the UN. The Ultima Tower is an innovative green design concept proposed to resourcefully use earth’s surface and allow sustainable distribution of resources within a dense urban setting.

"Designed to withstand natural calamities, (((good idea))) Ultima Tower is highly stable and aerodynamic. Rather than spreading horizontally the structure rises vertically from a base with a 7,000 foot diameter - inspired in part by the termite’s nest structures of Africa, the highest structure created by any living organism..."

(((After that it just gets weirder. Though it's interesting to see that finally, in 2008, the world's most ferociously ambitious architectural notions are green.)))

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