Dear Mark,

Picture the iconic, snowy landscape of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge … without polar bears.

It’s an unsettling thought. But as the Trump administration barrels closer to tearing open the Arctic Refuge to invasive oil and gas exploration, it could become reality sooner than we think.

Rapidly melting sea ice from climate change is already forcing more pregnant polar bears to move off the ice to den in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But if their dens are overrun with 90,000-pound “thumper” trucks and oil drilling rigs, these majestic bears will be left with nowhere to nurse and protect their cubs. And we’re running out of time to save them.

Photo – Alaska wild.

NRDC is fighting to protect America’s polar bears and other threatened wildlife, but we need your support. Become a Monthly Partner now to power our ongoing legal battles and help save the Arctic Refuge and its wildlife from destruction. If you start your gift before March 31, NRDC will receive an extra $75 for the environment!

Polar bears need us to protect their habitat and save them from extinction. And as a scientist in the Marine Mammal Protection Project and Oceans Division at NRDC, I can tell you that we need them, too. Polar bears are one of our best barometers for understanding our overheating planet.

That’s because their Arctic home is warming twice as fast as the planet’s average … melting sea ice, softening the land, and threatening Alaska’s fragile ecosystems.

Mark, we’re up against an administration that flat-out denies the dangers of our warming planet — and moreover, an industry that sees melting sea ice as an opportunity to expand offshore drilling to the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

NRDC is working to protect the Arctic’s polar bears and fight disastrous drilling in their home — but we can’t do it without you. Please, support our work now.

If the Trump administration succeeds in auctioning off Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas companies like ConocoPhillips or ExxonMobil, it will drive even faster global warming. And the polar bears? Tractors and massive thumper trucks will swarm the land, threatening their denning grounds and their cubs, making it even harder for them to survive.

That’s why NRDC is battling in court to block the Trump Administration from starting oil and gas leasing in the Beaufort Sea, which sits right off the coast of the Arctic Refuge. We also sued the administration to stop Big Oil from raiding the Western Arctic — and we’re preparing to jump into action the moment the Interior Department moves to begin leasing the Arctic Refuge.

We must be ready to haul this administration to court. And with your help, we can be. NRDC needs 300 committed supporters to join as Monthly Partners and come to the defense of the Arctic Refuge before it’s too late. Please, donate now >>

For everyone that joins with a monthly gift before the deadline, a donor will kick in an extra $75 to NRDC to help power our fight to protect the Arctic Refuge and our environment.

Stand with us right now — on the right side of history — as we face one of the biggest environmental battles of our lifetimes. If we’re going to win this fight, we need as much help as we can possibly get.

Sincerely,

Francine Kershaw, Ph.D.
Project Scientist, Marine Mammal Protection Project and Oceans Division, NRDC

Regards Mark.