Please take action to protect these marine mammals.

Bob Fertik
Dear Activist,

The Arctic seas are no place for hasty drilling!

Tell the Minerals Management Service to halt all new oil and gas leases!

Polar bears, walruses, seals, whales and ocean-going birds like eider ducks and loons call the Arctic Ocean home. Their survival in an environment seemingly so inhospitable is a wonder of nature. But as climate change continues unabated, these creatures – already facing a harsh environment – become some of the most vulnerable on earth.

Incredibly, their plight may get worse, as the Minerals Management Service (MMS) considers offering 73 million acres of Arctic waters to oil and gas leasing. That’s an area the size of Arizona.

It’s critically important that you speak out in defense of these creatures.

The receding ice cap has made it harder for the animals – marine and land-based – to get around and find food, including the polar bears that hunt and mate here each year, and the Pacific walruses that live here year round. In fact, 90 percent of the entire Pacific walrus population can be found in these waters.

But not just wildlife is at stake. Wholesale leasing in this area would endanger the centuries-old way of life of Native communities, whose very culture centers on wildlife and ecosystem integrity.

Please click here to tell the MMS to halt new leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

There is simply no safe way to drill in these waters. Studies have shown that even seismic testing of potential drilling sites is known to have an impact on marine animals’ habits and lifecycles. And research conducted by the MMS indicates that with extensive drilling, small crude oil and other petroleum spills are inevitable. MMS predicts a 40% chance of a large spill. Making matters worse, the technology to clean up a spill in icy Arctic waters doesn’t even exist.

We need science to guide decisions with such long-lasting effects, not pressure from the oil and gas industry. Until there is scientific evidence that drilling won’t harm wildlife, all new oil leases should be taken off the table.

Write the MMS today to ask that they halt all new leases until the science on drilling is in.

Thanks for all you do,

Kathy Kilmer
The Wilderness Society

Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:04 pm (PST)

Bush History-In ‘05 Caught Hiding Warming Data, in ‘07 Caught Hiding
Toxic Chemical Danger 12/13

Typical Bush: In mid-December 2005 the White House exerts pressure on
NASA to “better control” a scientist reporting scientific data on
warming. We don’t want to offend poor Exxon, after all. Some good
news: science fights back! Also, come 2007 newspapers report on this
date a weakening of EPA rules on toxic chemical release reporting
around the nation. And a Bushism.

http://poorgeorgesalmanac.com/?p=1119

Today’s category: Bushisms, Global Warming Denial, Manipulating
Research, The Corporation’s Yes Man, The Polluter’s Friend

Wed Dec 3, 2008 10:08 pm (PST)

Bush History-The World Pleads: If US is “not willing to lead … Please
get out of the way” 12/4

On this date Laura Bush makes reading recommendations. Also the world
gathers to discuss the critical matter of climate change. Given the
urgency, President Bush sends no one. Come 2007, the world is meeting
again on warming, this time with a message for the US: If you’re “not
willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us … (and) Please get out of
the way”. Also, Mr. Bush speaks of “federal cufflinks”. Cufflinks?

http://poorgeorgesalmanac.com/?p=1009

Today’s category: Bushisms, Global Warming Denial

By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: November 20, 2008

A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked Royal Dutch Shell from drilling oil wells off Alaska’s North Slope after finding that the Interior Department had failed to conduct an environmental study before issuing the company’s drilling permit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/21shell.html?_r=1&ref=science