Ultimately, even some biologists who favour the listing have their doubts about what all this debate over the polar bear will accomplish in the end. The listing won’t, after all, reverse global warming or stop declining bear populations in the foreseeable future. Greenhouse gas emissions will inevitably continue to rise in coming years. Obbard, the Ontario scientist who studies polar bears in the southern Hudson Bay region, admits he wonders how well the listing would protect the species. “But it might be good as a whole,” he says, “because maybe it will wake society up” to the dangers of climate change