Within weeks convoys of heavy trucks could be crushing polar bear dens in the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge. The trucks could scare mother polar bears into abandoning their dens, leaving their cubs to perish and sending the species into further decline.
Undoing decades of federal protection, the Trump administration has moved to open more than 1.5 million acres of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.
This will spell disaster for a pristine wilderness that's home to polar bears, Arctic foxes, caribou and vast numbers of birds and other wildlife. It'll open up the region to devastating oil spills.
Sign the petition now to tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to withdraw plans to auction off the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry.
Why is this important?
The Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population is the world's most imperiled, with as few as 900 individuals. The Arctic Refuge's coastal plain is vital to its survival. Oil and gas development there could eradicate polar bears from the region.
This refuge is America's largest remaining stretch of pristine wilderness. If industry is allowed to turn the Arctic Refuge into an oilfield, exacerbating the climate crisis and wildlife extinction crisis, this rare and wild landscape will be forever scarred.
The high cost to polar bears and the sensitive Arctic Refuge ecosystem just isn't worth it. The federal government must not allow harm to come to polar bears while looking for oil that Americans don't want the oil industry drilling for anyway.
Stand up for the Arctic Refuge, polar bears and our climate by signing the petition to oppose oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
