Polar Bears Will Become Extinct Due To Order By Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

Polar Bears Will Become Extinct Due To Order By Secretary Ken Salazar

By: David Lawrence Dewey
© copyrighted December 29, 2010

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Below is an email I have received from Kierán Suckling, Executive Director,Center for Biological Diversity. After reading what is about to happen in Alaska to our polar bears, please make a donation to the Center to stop this madness. Now to the facts.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Thursday issued a revised offshore oil plan that will allow drilling in the heart of polar bear habitat in Alaska. Salazar's announcement, which came in response to a previous court ruling, finalized a revised 2007-2012 nationwide offshore oil leasing plan. The previous plan, issued under the Bush administration, had been overturned by a federal appeals court for failing to properly analyze impacts of drilling off the Arctic coast of Alaska. Salazar's new plan reaffirms a 2008 lease sale in polar bear critical habitat in the Chukchi Sea. However, Salazar announced on Wednesday he would uphold a Bush-era decision to list polar bears as merely "threatened"; rather than the more protective status of "endangered." Such a move allows Salazar to exempt greenhouse gas polluters nationwide, as well as oil companies operating in polar bear habitat, from some of the Endangered Species Act's most protective provisions.

There is NO clean-up technology for an oil spill in the Arctic, Salazar'ss decision to move forward with the Chukchi leases demonstrates that all the promised reforms following the Gulf spill ultimately mean nothing for the Arctic. Has President Obama and Secretary Salazar lost their minds or have they under the control of oil corporations to open up the Artic despite all of the evidence we SHOULD NOT drill there under no circumstances?

Oil development in the Chukchi Sea, home to America’s precious polar bears, remains a dangerous proposition because no technologies exist to clean up oil spills in icy waters. Thursday's plan upholds the sale of leases in the Chukchi. I simply cannot believe this move at all, it not on offends my sense of morality that we as humans must have towards animals, but it totally disgusts and angers me that they are attempting to do this once again.

Secretary Salazar has evidently learned nothing from either the Gulf spill or the courts. No matter how many times the courts overturn his decisions to open the Arctic to oil, he comes back with the exact same decision. As we have seen in the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill, we saw the damage that a massive oil spill can cause and we have NO clean-up technology for an oil spill in the Arctic, Salazar's decision to move forward with the Chukchi leases clearly shows that all the promised reforms following the Gulf spill ultimately mean nothing for the Arctic” and President Obama is being a hypocrite in promising the Artic would not be touched by oil drilling.

I implore every American to do the following to stop this insanity. If this is .NOT stopped once and for all and for good, this action of Secretarty Salazar will make the polar bears extinct. Please do the following after reading the letter below:

Please call, email, write your Senators and House Of Represenatives and even President Obama to stop this madness.

You can call your Elected Representatives and President Obama at this Toll Free # (1-866) 220-0044 in Washington, D.C. - simply ask for the office of your Senator or House of Representatives office ot the Assistant to President Obama.

One voice can become millions, please join me to become those millions to stop this insanity.

And last, if you are not aware of the recent passing of the Food Safety Act, you need to also call your Represenatives to undo this.

Here are highlights of the Bill recently passed, and if you want to read more details then read this article:

Just four days to triple your gift and save polar bears.

Alaska just took its brutal war against the polar bear to a new level.

The state was already in court to strip federal protection from the polar bear, but last week it launched a new attack -- on the bear's habitat. It filed a legal notice to strike down the federal government's designation of a 120-million-acre polar bear reserve along Alaska's northern coast.

This is the largest imperiled species habitat reserve in history -- bigger than 48 of the 50 states -- and protecting it is essential to the survival of the polar bear.

The Center for Biological Diversity has just a few weeks to prepare to beat back Alaska's new antiwildlife lawsuit, and we need to raise the funds now to do it. Please, help us save the polar bear and the largest habitat reserve in history: Donate today to our Endangered Species Action Fund. A Center donor will triple-match any gift made by Dec. 31, so your donation will be worth three times as much.

The Center has been leading the charge to save polar bears since 2005. We got the majestic white bears placed on the federal list of "threatened species," we stopped oil drilling in their habitat and we won the 120-million-acre habitat reserve earlier this year.

We've been fighting for years to stop Alaska's bid to strip federal protection from the polar bear. And with your help today, we'll be in court again in just two months to stop the state's effort to eradicate the bears' habitat reserve as well.

Help us win the looming legal battle to save the polar bear's habitat by making a generous emergency gift to our Endangered Species Action Fund by the end of the year. Now is the best time to do it, since a Center supporter will make your gift worth three times as much by triple-matching donations made by Dec. 31.

The Center doesn't spend its money mailing wolf and polar bear plush toys. We don't offer calendars and tote bags. We spend our members' donations protecting endangered species, period. And we win: Our 93 percent success rate in the courts is unparalleled in the environmental movement. So is our protection of more than 500 species and 230 million acres of wildlife reserves.

Unfortunately, Alaska isn't the only one attacking polar bears. Last week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made two stunning decisions that could drive the polar bear extinct if we don't stop him as well.

In lock-step with Bush administration policies already struck down by the courts, first Salazar opened up huge areas of polar bear habitat to offshore oil drilling -- despite the devastating spill impacts we saw in the Gulf of Mexico -- and then he refused to upgrade the polar bear's legal status from "threatened" to "endangered." Withholding full protection from the polar bear gives Salazar an excuse for not stopping fossil fuel pollution from coal-fired power plants that are driving the species extinct.

But with your generous support and our 20-plus years of winning life-saving results for endangered wildlife, the Center will take on Alaska and Salazar at the same time, saving the polar bear and its precious, disappearing habitat.

For the wild,

Kierán Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

P.S. Your generous gift truly makes a difference when you give to the Center and keep our expert staff on the front lines of the most critical battles for the survival of species -- like the polar bear in Alaska. For only the next four days, a Center donor will match your gift, making it worth three times as much. Please give to our Endangered Species Action Fund by Dec. 31 and encourage your friends and family to join this life-saving, planet-saving effort.

P.P.S. If you prefer to make your gift by mail, send a check to the Center for Biological Diversity, PO Box 710, Tucson, AZ 85702 -- or to give by phone, call toll-free 1-866-357-3349 x 316. Thank you for your support.

Polar bear photo by Pete Spruance.

When donating online to the Center for Biological Diversity, always confirm that the donation page is located at DemocracyinAction.org or BiologicalDiversity.org.

Center for Biological Diversity

P.O. Box 710

Tucson, AZ 85702

1-866-357-3349