No drilling in America's Arctic!

For thousands of years, the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean have nurtured irreplaceable species including polar bears, whales and seals, and a unique human culture. But in the next few weeks, the Obama administration will make a series of crucial decisions that could determine whether America's Arctic will survive and thrive or be sacrificed to destructive and dangerous oil and gas drilling.

At stake are the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas--the Polar Bear Seas, home to 1 in 5 of the world's already diminished polar bear populations--as well as the rich fishing grounds of Bristol Bay. During the last eight years, the oil and gas industry and the Bush administration pushed hard to open these fragile waters to industrial-scale oil and gas exploration and drilling.

The rush to drill ignored the fact that the Arctic is probably the least-understood region on Earth and that the most basic scientific research is lacking to guide decisions that could alter the Arctic ecosystem forever. An oil spill in icy waters would be a disaster we have no idea how to clean up.

The Arctic is ground zero of the global warming crisis. Its seas, its wildlife and its people are already suffering the harmful effects of a warming world. Extracting more oil and gas would not only directly damage the Arctic ecosystem, but burning those fossil fuels will make global warming worse, while doing nothing to meet the nation's need for clean energy.

Now is the time to urge President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to treat America's Arctic as a national treasure and put the brakes on irresponsible oil and gas drilling. Let them know that the Arctic's places, species and people are too precious to allow further oil and gas activity without a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect the region's unique wildlife and the people whose culture and livelihoods depend on them.

Until September 21, Secretary Salazar is asking for Americans' opinions on a Bush-era plan for selling Arctic oil and gas leases. Soon he also will decide whether to permit Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean in 2010 and whether to defend a Bush-era sale in the Chukchi Sea that offered the pristine area to oil companies without complying with environmental laws.

Secretary Salazar should throw out the Bush-era leasing plan and cancel the illegal Chukchi Sea leases. He should call a "time-out" on all new oil and gas activity in the Arctic Ocean--including pending drilling plans--until he develops a science-based, comprehensive approach to managing the region that will ensure a legacy of a healthy, living Arctic for future generations.

These upcoming decisions present the Obama administration with the opportunity to chart a new course for the Arctic. Please take a minute to urge them to do so.