Alaska just took its brutal war against the polar bear to a new level.

The state was already in court to strip federal protection from the polar bear, but last week it launched a new attack — on the bear’s habitat. It filed a legal notice to strike down the federal government’s designation of a 120-million-acre polar bear reserve along Alaska’s northern coast.

This is the largest imperiled species habitat reserve in history — bigger than 48 of the 50 states — and protecting it is essential to the survival of the polar bear, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which is preparing to try and beat back Alaska’s new antiwildlife lawsuit.

“We’ve been fighting for years to stop Alaska’s bid to strip federal protection from the polar bear,” Kierán Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity’s executive director said in an action alert. “And with your help today, we’ll be in court again in just two months to stop the state’s effort to eradicate the bears’ habitat reserve as well.”

The Center has been leading the charge to save polar bears since 2005 and helped get the majestic white bears placed on the federal list of “threatened species” and stop oil drilling in their habitat, winning the 120-million-acre habitat reserve earlier this year. The Center doesn’t spend its money mailing wolf and polar bear plush toys, or offer calendars and tote bags.

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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has introduced legislation that would greatly aid in the expansion of rooftop solar-energy production in the United States.

“There is sufficient roof space in the United States to meet 20 percent of our electricity needs simply by installing solar panels,” according to a press release issued today by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Senator Sander’s “10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010″ would help fund the installation of solar panels on 10 million homes and businesses across the country as well as the installation of 200,000 solar water heaters. This would produce about 30,000 new megawatts of energy, the equivalent of about 30 nuclear power plants.

Unlike industrial-scale solar projects, which when poorly sited can have unacceptable negative impacts on wildlife and wild places and often require new long-distance transmission lines, rooftop solar by definition only occurs in already developed areas. It is the greenest of green energy.

The Center urges people to take a minute to contact their senators and encourage them to support the rapid expansion of rooftop solar energy.

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President Barack Obama’s first year in office has been a good news/bad news story for the environment, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Overall, the Center for Biological Diversity gives the president’s environmental record so far a “C.”

Why?

“Obama’s record, while much better than Bush’s, is disappointing so far,” the group’s executive director, Kierán Suckling, said in a press release. “He has not lived up to his campaign promises by a long shot.”

“Luckily,” Suckling said, “there’s still time to get him back on track: We have to show him America cares.”

On endangered species, the Obama administration revoked some damaging Bush-era policies, but also stripped protection from gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region.

On climate, his administration followed the Supreme Court’s lead and declared carbon dioxide a threat to human health and welfare…

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