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To: U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt

Say No to Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!

Center for Biological Diversity
America’s largest remaining stretch of pristine wilderness — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — could soon be under siege by the oil and gas industry.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt is doing everything he can to introduce oil and gas drilling to more than a million acres of untouched wilderness that polar bears, caribou and other Arctic wildlife call home.

The Arctic and its rare wildlife are already facing existential threats from the climate crisis. Handing this pristine wilderness to the fossil fuel industry will only accelerate the climate emergency and wildlife extinction crisis. It’s an outrageous violation of our shared planet.

This is supposed to be a wildlife refuge — not a refuge for a dying industry that's wreaking havoc on Earth’s climate and wildlife.

Sign this petition to tell the Bernhardt to keep oil in the ground and protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Why is this important?

Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling will worsen both the climate and wildlife extinction crises. Burning the recoverable oil estimated in the refuge could result in more than 4.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution — that’s roughly equivalent to the emissions from nearly 1,100 coal plants operating for a year.

While the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate — losing 13% of Arctic sea ice per decade — the climate crisis continues to ravage communities and wildlife habitats across the globe. At the current rate, the Arctic could be without ice in the summer by 2040.

As sea ice is lost, so are the animals that depend on it for their survival.

If Big Oil is allowed to drill into the Arctic Refuge, this wild landscape will be forever scarred. And, once drilling rights are sold, it will be much harder for elected officials to reverse course.

Though the threat is high, the fight is not over. That’s why it’s up to all of us to oppose every effort to industrialize this pristine refuge.

It’s time to demand the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be protected from oil drilling.

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Updates

2020-09-02 15:25:47 -0400

UPDATE: The Trump administration is doing everything it can to open millions of acres of Alaska’s Arctic to the oil industry. We’re fighting back.

The Center for Biological Diversity is part of a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration over its plan to allow oil and gas drilling on 18.7 million acres of the Western Arctic.

The lawsuit is one of several recent legal challenges fighting the administration’s push to vastly increase oil and gas leasing, exploration and development across America’s Arctic.

“This is one of the most remarkable places on the planet and it’s unconscionable that the Trump administration is trying to turn it into an industrial zone,” said Kristen Monsell, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Sign the petition: Tell the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw its plan to turn this magnificent Alaska reserve into an oilfield.

Link: https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/e0bLZ5d78UWJYVnnKGgoSQ2

2020-08-25 07:34:36 -0400

5,000 signatures reached

2020-08-23 22:10:19 -0400

1,000 signatures reached

2020-08-21 13:35:03 -0400

500 signatures reached

2020-08-20 14:42:13 -0400

100 signatures reached

2020-08-20 13:38:57 -0400

50 signatures reached

2020-08-20 13:26:01 -0400

25 signatures reached

2020-08-20 13:21:05 -0400

10 signatures reached