Fwd: TAKE ACTION: 100,000 Strong for Polar Bears

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jamie Rappaport Clark, Defenders of Wildlife <defenders@mail.defenders.org>
Date: 2011/11/8
Subject: TAKE ACTION: 100,000 Strong for Polar Bears

Wildlife Supporter-- Scientists say that America's polar bears could be extinct in the wild by 2050. But your message today could help save vital homes for these beloved bears…and give them a fighting chance at survival. Take action today.

Save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ... and Its Polar Bears The activities and infrastructure associated with drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could disturb polar bear habitat, causing mothers to abandon their cubs to die. Protect critical polar bear denning habitat. Take action now.  Share on Facebook Dear , Big Oil's drills could be the nail in the coffin for America's vanishing polar bears. The oil industry and its political allies are pushing harder than ever to industrialize the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move that would destroy the most important onshore denning habitat for our nation's threatened polar bears. But there is reason for hope, . Your action today could help ensure vital protections for critical polar bear habitat. Please urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by recommending a wilderness designation for the coastal plain. In its draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is for the first time considering making a formal recommendation to designate the Arctic Refuge's coastal plain as wilderness.  A wilderness recommendation would bring us one step closer to protecting this important area, and the wildlife that depends on it, for good.  But we need your help to send a strong message that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can't ignore. Take action online. Send your comment now. If enacted, wilderness protections would… Ensure that no frightened polar bear mother abandons her cubs due to the noise and disruption that comes from drilling activities; Limit the pollution and potential oil and gas spills that have been an all-too-common occurrence where Big Oil's drills have made their way to the Arctic; and   Stop harmful drilling – and the roads and development that come with it – from being carved across the crown jewel of America's National Wildlife Refuge System. America's polar bears are already in big trouble, with climate change, habitat loss and pollution threatening their very survival in the wild. Yet, year after year, Big Oil presses to drill in the areas that are most important to our polar bears. Will you take 30 seconds right now to speak out for these mighty Arctic animals – and the other wildlife that makes its home in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Comments are due in just a few short weeks. Please send your message to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service right now and share this action on Facebook. To save the lives and homes of our polar bears, Defenders of Wildlife has set an ambitious goal of sending at least 100,000 messages  to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the November 14th deadline for public comments. That's an intimidating number, but it's a goal that we can achieve with your help! Our polar bears need your help. Please send your message to federal officials today and speak out for our Arctic wildlife. With Gratitude, Jamie Rappaport Clark President Defenders of Wildlife  P.S. It's not just our polar bears that need your help. The Arctic Refuge is one of America's most unique natural treasures, supporting a vast array of wildlife including arctic foxes, grizzly bears, muskoxen, Dall sheep, wolves and wolverines. Its coastal plain is the calving ground of the famed Porcupine caribou herd. Please take action to safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge now.

© Copyright 2011, Defenders of Wildlife Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities. Defenders of Wildlife can be contacted at: 1130 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036