It’s been a good week for polar bears. The Biden administration suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, erasing another ill-advised Trump signature and delivering on a Biden campaign promise to protect the fragile Alaskan tundra from fossil fuel extraction.
But the polar bears – and all of us – will need more than that to beat climate change.
The decision, announced with a formal order from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, begins a process that could halt drilling in one of the largest tracts of untouched wilderness in the United States, home to the bears, caribou, migrating waterfowl and as much as 11 billion barrels of oil.
For more than 40 years, Democrats and Republicans have fought over whether to allow drilling there.
And that’s not likely to change given the political landscape of Washington. Just consider the many other climate-harming things Biden hasn’t yet undone: