Save Your Posterior And Polar Bears' Too

In case you don't already know, our letters and petitions to President Obama and all of the other work done to stop oil drilling by Shell has been a success! We won for this year. 

They won't just give up and go away, however. We need to keep going to protect ourselves and our victory. Here is the text of my personalized form letter to President Obama:


I am watching the effects of climate change in my home in Alaska. Climate change is going faster here than anywhere in the world. Since the Arctic is the "weather factory of the world" according to climatologists, when our weather goes crazy so does everyone else's. Everyone loves polar bears and wants to save them, but if they go so does the human race. We need to save our own bacon along with theirs.

I am writing to ask you to move forward on two key issues related to America's Arctic -- please take action to protect the Polar Bear Seas (the Beaufort and Chukchi) and the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

Thank you for the bold steps you have taken in recent weeks to protect our special public lands in Alaska: finalizing the Integrated Activity Plan for the NPRA, which protects 11 million acres in the western Arctic, and rejecting the land-swap and road in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. 

Please keep taking such bold steps for America's Arctic. Act to keep oil drilling out of the Arctic Ocean, keep the Arctic's fossil fuels in the ground to prevent disastrous climate change, and move towards permanent protection of the coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

Now that Royal Dutch Shell has given up on drilling in 2013, it is the time to act on the Arctic Ocean. Please cancel Shell's drilling permits and do not move forward on any new permitting in the Arctic Ocean. Shell's efforts have proven that the oil industry cannot drill in the Arctic Ocean. 

The Arctic faces a double-whammy of oil development and climate change. Closing the Arctic Ocean to oil development moves towards a solution for both. I urge you to ensure that any new ports in the Arctic Oceans do not facilitate industrial development and that the port siting process is not driven by private economic interests.

The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most iconic wild places in America. I am counting on you to move forward with a strong Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Arctic Refuge that recommends Wilderness designation for the coastal plain.


My own part is in red. The form letter continues in the blue print. 

Here is the link if you want to add your two cents: https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=10437&autologin=true&s_promoCode=s_src%3D213CRHAN03&arg1=v2