First tigers, now polar bears

It's curious how people who are nothing but voracious consumers for the most part suddenly develop an interest in the environment. Better still, they become experts and spokespeople for ecological issues. Nearly everyone worth their page three partywear is "doing something about the environment" - mostly attending glitterati-infested soirees and taking home souvenirs made out of 'green' material that helps "regenerate forests" and "cut down carbon emissions". My, my... what a lot of pillow talk among the strangest bedfellows. In India, everyone is batting for the tiger. No matter what measures real experts like Dr. Ullas Karanth advocate, everyone from the Prime Minister's uncle to some nut generating bites for a TV channel is campaigning for tigers. Now, everyone of the aforesaid ilk who is doing his or her bit for the planet is obsessed with polar bears. As late as last month, many of these people couldn't tell a polar bear from a grizzly. So much that Ursus maritimus poses a big threat to Barack Obama if he runs for president. Since a lot of our new converts to conservation cannot be ignored, WWF has released Polar Bear Facts and Fallacies, a publication that attempts to lay bare (bad pun, I know) the facts about polar bears. Worth the download, and worth circulating while you read it.