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Oil and Ice Don't Mix: Protect the U.S. Arctic Ocean
Decisions the Obama administration are making now about oil and gas development could have irreversible environmental impacts such as threatening the survival of many species that are dependent on sea ice, including the polar bear, walrus and ice seals, and may endanger the subsistence way of life of Indigenous peoples. Once the drills start, government scientists predict a 40 percent chance of one or more large oil spills in the Chukchi Sea alone! The previous administration's unconstrained plans for oil and gas development have no place in America's Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay. Urge Secretary Salazar to remove Bristol Bay entirely from current and future leasing plans and to take a time out from all oil and gas activities and new leasing in the U.S. Arctic. America's Arctic should be off limits until a comprehensive, science-based Arctic Ocean plan can be developed.
Dear [ Decision Maker ] , Thank you for taking the bold step of examining, in-depth, the new five-year plan for oil and gas development off our nation's coasts. Decisions made now by the Obama administration about oil and gas development could have irreversible environmental impacts in the U.S. Arctic Ocean -- one of the world's last pristine ecosystems and the human communities that rely on its health for subsistence. The previous administration's aggressive plans for oil and gas development, as reflected both in the current 2007-2012 Leasing Program and the 2010-2015 Draft Proposed Leasing Program, have no place in the Arctic Ocean or Bristol Bay. I urge you to impose a "time-out" in the U.S. Arctic and develop a comprehensive Arctic Ocean plan that is based on science.
Thank you, |
Campaign Launched: |
The rush for oil and gas drilling is on in America's Arctic Ocean - one of the world's last pristine marine ecosystems. Temperatures in the Arctic are warming at twice the rate of anywhere else on earth and Arctic ice is melting at a rapid pace.
| Background Information |
The Arctic Ocean, its marine wildlife, and the people it supports face changes unparalleled anywhere on Earth. Over the last 100 years, the Arctic has, on average, warmed at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. In the coming years, the Arctic will continue to experience rapid and fundamental changes to its natural systems. Foremost is the rapid loss of sea-ice. Scientists predict that the Arctic will be seasonally ice-free within a mere five to 20 years.
Rapid warming in the Arctic places extreme adaptation pressure on Arctic species and on the people whose subsistence culture has been supported for thousands of years. The Arctic Ocean is home to dozens of species of marine mammals including polar bears, bowhead, beluga and gray whales, narwhal, walruses and bearded, ringed and ribbon seals. In the U.S., several species dependent on the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, including the polar bear, bowhead whale and spectacled eider, are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The unprecedented loss of sea ice has prompted demand to expand unregulated commercial fisheries and maritime shipping, and to increase offshore drilling for oil and gas without adequate protections for environmentally and culturally sensitive areas. Because relatively little is known about the abundance, distribution, and role of fish and other marine species in the Arctic, there is no way to anticipate the impact of industrial development on its ecosystems.
