Help stop oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

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About ALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE

Location:

122C ST N W, WASHINGTON, DC 20001, US

Mission Statement

The Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign is looking for motivated volunteers to help us on an exciting climate action campaign to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas drilling. As volunteers , you will help us to build grassroots power and work with local organizations and participate in environmental advocacy with our elected officials. With this work, you can join us in addressing one of the most vital issues out there: climate change. Over the next several months, we will be organizing community events, working with the media, collecting petition signatures, generating public comments, and building a broad coalition of local groups to join us in asking our elected officials to commit to stop drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Description

The Arctic Refuge is one of the largest, most intact ecosystems on planet earth. It is absolutely crucial that we protect the land, the people, and the animals that inhabit it.
In late 2017, Congress passed an act which opened the Refuge up to oil and gas development. These developments would devastate the precious ecosystem, including the wildlife and indigenous people that live within it. The Gwich’en Nation, for example, have had a strong tie to the land and the migrating Caribou herds for thousands of years. The prosperity of the Gwich’en people is at stake as their main source of food may dwindle. It is clear that drilling in the arctic is a human rights issue. What is not so easy to see, though, are the environmental issues. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the United States, causing polar bears to starve as their main sources of food disappear. By depending on fossil fuel extraction, we will make the Arctic increasingly uninhabitable for humans and animals alike. We can take a stand against these destructive practices, though. We don’t have to depend on fossil fuel extraction anymore. Instead, we can help pave the way for protecting natural areas rather than exploiting them. We can embrace human rights over profits and step up for the Gwich’en people. We can keep those 19 million acres of land untouched, pristine, and home to happy -- not starved -- polar bears.