I just received the following email from NRDC asking for emergency donations. Please, if you have the means, make a donation today.
Dear Jason,
I have to share bad news. We have been hoping that the Obama Administration would come to the polar bear's rescue by reversing the Bush Administration's "polluters first" policy on polar bear protection.
But instead, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has just cut the polar bear's lifeline. He adopted a Bush policy that refuses to use vital Endangered Species Act protections to save the polar bear from the deadliest threat it faces -- global warming pollution, a danger made even worse by rampant Arctic oil development.
Letting these loopholes stay in place is like sending a leaky lifeboat to save drowning polar bears. It simply won't protect them -- and may even accelerate their rapid slide toward extinction.
That's why I'm asking you to give an emergency contribution to help NRDC fight this dangerous and illegal plan in court. We simply must have your support if we are to win uncompromising protection for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.
I'm sure you share my disappointment that the Obama Administration -- which has launched the most ambitious green energy program in history -- would allow polar bears to suffer and die by embracing this throwback to Bush's pro-polluter agenda.
And I'm sure you agree we must not let this disastrous plan go unchallenged -- especially since the Obama Administration has pledged to base its environmental policies on solid science.
We're fighting in federal court to overturn this Bush-era policy and compel the Obama Administration to throw polar bears a strong lifeline. But to wage and win this life-or-death case, we need your emergency donation right away.
Thanks to your past support, we've come so far in our campaign to save the polar bear. As a result of three years of legal pressure -- and our grassroots Polar Bear S.O.S. campaign -- the Bush Administration was forced to protect the polar bear as a "threatened species."
But that protection is NOT enough to save polar bears from extinction unless the Obama Administration closes these disastrous loopholes for global warming polluters and oil companies.
Without uncompromising protection, the polar bear is likely to become extinct in Alaska by 2050 -- along with two-thirds of the world's entire polar bear population -- as the Arctic sea ice it depends on for survival melts away.
I'm counting on you to make an emergency contribution for the sake of polar bear survival.
Right now, as the Arctic summer sea ice retreats, polar bears will be forced to swim ever greater distances in search of food -- and more are likely to drown. These magnificent Arctic creatures deserve the strongest protection our country can provide -- and your support can help NRDC win it for them.
Thank you for helping us answer the polar bear's S.O.S.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
P.S. Please give your most generous emergency gift now -- because NRDC's fight in federal court is the last and best line of defense for the polar bear. We must win a swift victory -- because, otherwise, Alaska's polar bears could be wiped out by 2050!