Top left, Caribou bulls swimming across Kobuk River, © Nick Jans, AlaskaStock.com; top right, polar bear mother and cubs, Steve Amstrup, Alaska Image Library, USFWS; Wildlife Service; above, spectacled eider, Chris Dau, Alaska Image Library, USFWS.
As global warming continues to melt fragile Arctic habitat, polar bears and other imperiled species are fighting for their lives. Yet Big Oil is escalating its campaign to open America's prime Arctic wildlands -- including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Western Arctic Reserve and the Polar Bear Seas -- to massive oil development. Vast swaths of land and sea along Alaska's north and west coasts, the fragile home of polar bears, whales, caribou and millions of birds, will be ravaged by the oil and gas industry if pro-polluter policies put in place by the Bush Administration are not reversed.
NRDC and BioGems Defenders helped stave off repeated attempts to drill in and around the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and also helped win a temporary reprieve for the Teshekpuk Lake region — birthing grounds of the legendary Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd as well as rare yellow-billed loons, tundra swans and eiders. Now, we are fighting in court to block a revived attempt by Shell to drill off the coast of the Arctic Refuge, where an oil spill could spell disaster for polar bears, whales and other rare wildlife. We will continue campaigning in court, inside federal agencies and on Capitol Hill to save our greatest Arctic wildlife habitats from oil development and industrialization.
