A Message From Robert Redford

[Guest guest]

Dear Friend,

 

I've never circulated this kind of email before. But I am so appalled by

 

President Bush's plan to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to

 

massive oil development that I feel I must do whatever I can to help stop

 

it. To me, the Arctic Refuge represents everything spectacular and

 

everything endangered about America's natural heritage: a million years of

 

ecological serenity . . . vast expanses of untouched wilderness . . .an

 

irreplaceable sanctuary for polar bears, white wolves and 130,000 caribou

 

that return here each year to give birth and rear their young. For 20,000

 

years-literally hundreds of generations-the native Gwich'in people have

 

inhabited this sacred place, following the caribou herd and leaving the

 

awe-inspiring landscape just as they found it.

 

Our own presidents going back to Eisenhower have kept a bipartisan promise

 

to safeguard this world-class natural treasure. But not THIS president. It

 

is a sad day indeed when our president and congressional leaders would

 

sacrifice America's largest wildlife refuge for the sake of a possible

 

six-month supply of national energy. A six-month supply! We could save that

 

little oil by improving the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks by a

 

mere one mile per gallon. Only one group of Americans will benefit from the

 

destruction of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge: the oil giants. Everyone else

 

loses. Arctic wildlife populations will decline, the Gwich'in people will

 

see their land marred by pipelines and poisoned by oil spills, you and I

 

will become even more dependent on oil, and the planet will suffer

 

catastrophic global warming from the burning of even more fossil fuel.

 

Unless we get millions of Americans to lodge a protest right now, this

 

nightmarish scenario may well come to pass in the next two months. The

 

Republican energy bill, which would fulfill the president's promise to drill

 

the Arctic Refuge, is moving through Congress today. House and Senate

 

leaders may also try to sneak through the Arctic drilling provision by

 

attaching it to a " must-pass " appropriations bill. These votes will be

 

decided by the moderates in both parties. We must reach those moderates and

 

hold them accountable. Here's what you can do: go to

 

www.savebiogems.org/arctic <http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic> The Natural

 

Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has set up this new website to make it

 

extremely easy for you to send messages of protest to your senators and

 

representative. It will take you only a minute.

 

I've been on NRDC's board for 25 years, so I know how effective they are at

 

waging and winning environmental campaigns. Last year, NRDC used web

 

activism to help generate a million messages of protest to Mitsubishi and

 

stopped the company from destroying the last unspoiled birthing ground of

 

the Pacific gray whale. We'll win this time too if each of us does our part

 

for the Arctic Refuge. Please visit <http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic>

 

right now.

 

And forward my message to your family, friends and colleagues. Congress

 

cannot ignore millions of us. If we let them plunder our greatest wildlife

 

refuge for the sake of oil company profits, then no piece of our natural

 

heritage is safe from destruction. Please go to

 

<http://www.savebiogems.org/arctic> and help keep the Arctic wild and free.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Robert Redford

 

BioGems: Saving Endangered Wild Places A project of the Natural Resources

 

Defense Council <http://www.savebiogems.org>

 

If you have any questions about this message or our campaign to Keep the

 

Arctic Wild and Free! please write to us at membership

 

 

 

Lynne Stornello

libby63