Comment from the contributor:

 From Vanity Fair --This very extensive article examines the fight to save the polar bear from extinction.  The author reports from the town of Kaktovik in northern Alaska where oil companies wanted to drill and attempted to get their leases pushed through various governmental agencies before polar bears were designated as endangered.  Despite a huge outcry, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proceeded with the $2.66 billion sale and perhaps further doomed the polar bear.

“ There, gazing at me from a distance of three inches, was a female polar bear on her hind legs, her huge front pads on the window, her giant claws clicking against the glass. For a long moment she stared at me intently, emotionlessly, sizing me up. This was no whimsical creature in a Coca-Cola ad. ”