A U.S. federal judge upheld the status of polar bears as a species threatened by climate change, denying challenges by a safari club, two cattlemen’s organizations and the state of Alaska. The ruling on Thursday by District Judge Emmet Sullivan confirmed a 2008 decision that polar bears need protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because their icy habitat is melting away. The legal challenges — some contending polar bears don’t need this protection, others maintaining the big white bears need more — were launched after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service included this Arctic mammal on its list of threatened species.

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Climate change is endangering the Polar Bears, court rules

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