Defenders of Wildlife Launches Campaign to Save Arctic Refuge
"We expect this to be the biggest environmental petition ever conducted on the Internet," Schlickeisen said. "We know Americans overwhelmingly favor protecting the Arctic refuge. This is the most important conservation battle of the new century, and we are giving people a 21st-century way to make their voices heard."
The petition urges President Bush and Congress not to allow oil exploration in the refuge, the only remaining 5 percent of Alaska's North Slope not already open to drilling. Recent public-opinion polls show two-thirds of Americans are against it, and even those who voted for Bush oppose drilling by a 52 percent to 37 percent margin. Regardless, President Bush has made drilling in the refuge the centerpiece of his energy policy, and members of the Republican Senate leadership are expected to put it in their national energy bill, slated for introduction in February as one of their first major pieces of legislation.
The petition can be signed and emailed to the president and members of Congress on Defenders' new Web site -- www.SaveArcticRefuge.org -- which was designed specially for this campaign.
The Web site also features an innovative computer animation. Narrated by actor Ed Asner, it tells the story of a polar bear and cub driven from their den by oil wells on the refuge’s now-pristine coastal plain."We have used animation to tell our story, but experts tell us that in real life, oil development could cause massive harm to Arctic wildlife, including causing polar bears to abandon their cubs," Schlickeisen said. "We urge everyone to share our video with their friends on the Internet and sign our petition to save the Arctic refuge."
"When the Bush administration proposes to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its coastal plain to oil development, they are advocating sticking oil wells right smack in the biological heart of the wildest place left in America.
It's tugging at a thread that could unravel the entire 19 million acre Arctic Refuge and a lot more as well," said Clark, who directed the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1997 through January 20, 2001.
"Big Oil is lobbying Congress to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America's greatest wildlife sanctuary. Called America's Serengeti, it's home to polar bears, muskoxen, wolves, millions of migratory birds, caribou and hundreds of other species. The industrial disturbance from oil drilling would be immense and spills are inevitable. Just this week, we got another chilling reminder of the danger, as a greasy oil slick surrounds the Galapagos Islands," Schlickeisen said.
"Nothing is sacrosanct to the oil industry. It sees all wilderness as merely something to be manipulated for commercial gain. But oil development would scar the land forever. It would deface the wilderness with all the ugly machinery that already mars much of the rest of Alaska's North Slope," Schlickeisen said.
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Defenders of Wildlife is known for its high-tech innovations. The organization's Defenders Electronic Network (DEN) is an online environmental advocacy tool that includes a free e-mail newsletter called DENlines, plus email alerts when urgent action is needed.
Contact(s):
Cat Lazaroff, (202) 772-3270