I wanted you to know that the Bush administration is using the recent
rise in gasoline prices as a pretext to sacrifice one of America's greatest natural treasures -- the Western Arctic Reserve of Alaska -- to massive oil development.
We have a very narrow window in which to block this corporate-sponsored raid on our natural heritage. Over the next 30 days, the Bush administration is taking public comments on its plan to put 96 percent of the reserve's wildlife-filled northeast region on the auction block.
I am asking you and hundreds of thousands of others to join me in
flooding the Bush administration with messages of protest over the next critical weeks.
Please do your part by going to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407 and sending an electronic message telling the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw its destructive plan and to permanently protect the reserve's world-class wildlife habitats.
Then please forward my message to as many people as you can.
The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge -- which lies directly to the east -- but its wildlife populations are every bit as unique, spectacular and endangered.
I am especially concerned about the Western Arctic Reserve's Teshekpuk
Lake region -- one of the most important tundra-wetland ecosystems left on our planet. This vast network of coastal lagoons, deep water lakes, sedge grass meadows and braided streams provides the critical calving grounds for the 45,000-member Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd.
Thirty percent of all Pacific black brant also take refuge in these
safe and remote wetlands, remaining flightless while they replace their old feathers. Steller's eiders, northern pintails, tundra swans and rare yellow-billed loons are just a few of the other amazing species that flock to Teshekpuk Lake to nest, free from disturbance. Come fall, some of these birds will migrate as far south as Antarctica.
Polar bears roam the coastal areas of Teshekpuk Lake from summer to
early winter. And people are counting on the lake for survival as well. The Inupiat Eskimos have subsisted here in balance with nature for at least 8,000years by following the herds of caribou.
Incredibly, the Western Arctic has never been granted full federal
protection. That's because it was set aside as the "National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska" nearly a century ago. But Congress also stipulated that this oil field be tapped only in time of dire national need.
Our government kept oil rigs out of the Western Arctic Reserve even
during the darkest days of World War II and the oil embargo of the 1970s. As a result, most of the reserve has remained pristine -- its primeval beauty unmarred by roads, oil rigs or other signs of human interference.
Interior secretaries since the 1970s have recognized the need for
special protection in the Teshekpuk Lake area. But if the Bush administration gets its way, Teshekpuk Lake will soon be stripped of most of those protections and sold to the highest bidder.
And for what? Drilling in the Western Arctic would have no effect on
gas prices at the pump. Its oil would take years to get to market and would never equal more than one or two percent of America's oil supply -- a tiny drop in the bucket of our nation's oil consumption.
Only one group would benefit from destroying the Western Arctic: the
oil giants. Meanwhile, they would turn one of the planet's most fragile homes for Arctic wildlife into an industrial zone of pipelines, producing wells and contaminated waste sites.
The Western Arctic Reserve is supposed to be an energy savings account
of last resort. A recent poll shows that the vast majority of Americans would rather save oil and lower gas prices by adopting tougher fuel economy standards for our cars and trucks.
Please join me in telling the Bush administration to follow the cleaner and more self-reliant path of fuel efficiency -- and to put Teshekpuk Lake and other critical habitats off limits to the oil industry.
Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407 and tell the Bush administration to withdraw its destructive plan. And
remember to forward my message to your friends, colleagues and family.
This fight represents one of our very last chances to preserve
untrammeled wilderness as we first found it. Let's speak with one voice and stop this senseless attack on one of the world's greatest sanctuaries for Arctic wildlife. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert Redford
Board of Trustees
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
. . .
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
