The U.S. Department of Interior has just announced that it will list polar bears as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the listing is based on the best available science that shows the loss of Arctic sea ice threatens and will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat.

Attorneys from Joshua Tree filed a petition in 2005 then a lawsuit against the Bush administration seeking the protection for the bears from the impacts of climate change. They include Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Siegel sent over this comment.

"This decision is a watershed event because it has forced the Bush administration to acknowledge global warming's brutal impacts," Siegel said in a statement. "It's not too late to save the polar bear, and we'll keep fighting to ensure that the polar bear gets the help it needs through the full protections of the Endangered Species Act."

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This undated file photo released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a sow polar bear resting with her cubs on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska.

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