Dear Friend,
I just wrote to the Department of Interior, urging them not to open new
areas of the Arctic Ocean to oil and gas drilling. I hope you'll read
the action alert below from the National Audubon Society and join me in
submitting public comments.
Audubon Action Alert
The ocean waters along Alaska's northern coast provide vital habitat
for extraordinary wildlife, including polar bears, walruses,
ice-dependent seals, endangered bowhead whales, and millions of
migratory birds. The Arctic Ocean can also be phenomenally harsh:
broken ice covers the water for much of the year, storms with
hurricane-force winds can whip up 20-foot seas, and it is entirely dark
for half the year. The federal government recently released a proposed
Five-Year Program (2012-2017) for offshore oil and gas leasing that
could open up pristine new areas in the Arctic Ocean offshore of Alaska
to oil drilling. The oil industry has never successfully demonstrated the ability to
clean up an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean.
Speak up for the birds and wildlife of the Arctic Ocean! Please tell the Department of the
Interior that the Arctic Ocean should remain off-limits to oil and gas
drilling:
http://www.audubonaction.org/site/Advocacy?id=1189 An oil spill in the Arctic Ocean could be disastrous for marine mammals
such as polar bear, Bowhead whale, walrus and seals. It would also harm
birds such as the Spectacled Eider, Steller's Eider, and
Yellow-billed Loon, all three of which are on the Alaska WatchList.
Even without the threat of oil and gas development, the Arctic is
subject to rapid climate warming at a rate that is twice the rest of
the earth. Changes due to warming are already having significant
negative impacts on Arctic people and ecosystems. Additional oil and
gas activities in the Arctic would only add to existing impacts.
Please submit your public comments today. Comments are due February 8:
http://www.audubonaction.org/site/Advocacy?id=1189 To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
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