单选题
The Inuit see polar bears as a valuable source of food, warmth and money in a part of the world where all three are in short supply.
1
to animal-welfare and green groups in warmer places the polar bears are both a (n)
2
in the fight against climate change and an animal under threat of
3
. The melting of the Arctic"s ice cap means the population will
4
sharply, they say. They want international trade in bear pelts and parts, already
5
restricted, completely banned.
These
6
views are set to at a meeting of the
7
on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an intergovernmental agreement, in Bangkok. Having failed at the
8
meeting of CITES in 2010, the United States is again leading a
9
to ban trade in polar bear products in all but "
10
" circumstances. The debate promises to be
11
. What it lacks are facts. The Americans
12
that only 8 of the 19 known groups of polar bears have been surveyed since 2000. Of the
13
11, four have never been surveyed.
Should the United States obtain the two-thirds
14
needed to change the bear"s status, it would be a
15
to the Inuit. Their trade in walrus tusks and narwhal horns has dried up because of curbs
16
sales of ivory designed largely to protect elephants. The trade in seal pelts and meat was
17
by a 2009 import ban by the European Union,
18
this granted a limited exemption to native peoples. The Inuit argue that if the problem is climate change, to ban trade in polar bears is to attack the symptom
19
the cause. But the MEPs (欧盟会员) still voted
20
the American position.