<CMS name="api.demaction.org/campaign:6349:Description">Last month we asked you to help protect America’s Arctic Ocean--the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas--from oil and gas exploration and drilling. Despite widespread public opposition to the Bush Administration’s shortsighted “drill everywhere�?5-Yr. Plan and the fact that this Plan has not yet even been finalized, the U.S. Minerals Management Service is preparing to lease 33 million publicly owned acres of the Chukchi Sea to oil companies. This holiday gift to Big Oil will cause irreversible changes in a pristine area and impact polar bears, walrus, bowhead whales, seals, seabirds and the entire ecosystem of the world’s most productive high latitude sea.

Oil exploration, drilling, pipeline infrastructure, and heavy transportation would also disproportionately impact subsistence communities and exacerbate stresses on the Arctic that are caused by our national addiction to oil. Although scientists do know that the Chukchi is one of the most productive Arctic seas on the planet, there is little scientific information about the current status and specific habitats of fish, marine mammal, and seabird populations. That means that we may never even know the true extent of ecological destruction associated with this development. Unfortunately, the story gets even worse—industry has admitted it has no ability to clean up oil spills, which are inevitable, in such icy conditions.

Take action today!