A Message from Robert Redford

[Guest guest]

Forwarded Message

 

 

Dear NRDC Earth Activist,

 

I wanted to pass along to you the following message

describing my feelings about President Bush's plan to

drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the

urgent need for us to fight back. As an NRDC Earth

Action r you've most likely already taken

action on behalf of our Arctic wilderness -- and I

thank you. Now, please do me the great favor of

forwarding my message to everyone you know -- your

friends, family, co-workers, discussion groups --

encouraging them to join us in this critical battle.

 

Sincerely yours,

Robert Redford

 

=====

 

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

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

represenative. 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

 

=====

 

 

 

To from Earth Action, send an email

message to earthaction with REMOVE in

the subject line. To update your email address or

other information, go to:

http://www.join.nrdcaction.org/profileeditor

 

For more information about NRDC or how to become a

member of NRDC, please contact us at:

 

Natural Resources Defense Council

40 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)

General email: nrdcinfo

Earth Action email: nrdcaction

http://www.nrdc.org

 

Also visit:

BioGems -- Saving Endangered Wild Places

A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council

http://www.savebiogems.org

 

 

 

 

 

Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices

http://auctions./