save the polar bears

“Yielding to pressure from conservationists, including more than 50,000 NRDC Members and online activists, the Obama Administration has just announced that it will support an upgrade in international protection for polar bears.”

“This is extremely important, because if the world agrees to increase the polar bear’s protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it would help end trophy hunting and stop the global trade in polar bear body parts.”

Thank you to Ken Salazer for doing the right thing!

I saw this movie, very eye opening. Makes me want to save the polar bears and walrus!

a message urging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to take action for our polar bears. Anyone else wanting to do the same can do so by going to this page

Victory for polar bears and other imperiled wildlife…
Today at 8:48am
Hello, friends…

With last week’s bad news about the elimination of federal protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho, I’d thought folks might be interested in some news that’s a bit more uplifting :)

Please check out the message below from Defenders President Rodger Schlickeisen to find out how the efforts of Defenders supporters like you helped convince the Senate to safeguard protections for polar bears and other imperiled wildlife!

- Chris and the Defenders Facebook Team

Dear Wildlife Supporter,

It’s about time we got some good news!

Thanks to the efforts of the more than 49,000 caring Defenders activists who took the time to contact their Senators, we’ve helped secure an important victory for polar bears and other imperiled wildlife. On behalf of all of us at Defenders, I especially want to thank the thousands of activists who personally called their Senators last week.

Last Thursday, the Senate rejected an attempt by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski to strip language from the omnibus spending bill that would help restore vital protections for polar bears and hundreds of other species protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The Senate last night passed the omnibus bill – including the provisions in the bill to reverse the Bush Administration’s assault on the Endangered Species Act that Senator Murkowski had sought to remove. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law later today.

This victory would not have been possible without your efforts, and it underscores the important difference that we can make when we work together to protect our polar bears, wolves and other wildlife.

We’ll have plenty of tough fights in the days ahead. But for the moment, please accept my sincere gratitude for helping us secure this important win for America’s vanishing polar bears and other imperiled species.

For the Wild Ones,

Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife

I read about it, and a name I hoped I’d never have to read again: Palin.

There’s a petition to sign.
Wren explains it here

says it best

After eight years of suffering under the Bush Administration’s “polluters-first” policies, the polar bear is now hurtling headlong toward extinction.

It’s up to the Obama Administration to slam on the brakes, put Bush’s dangerous policies in reverse, and give the green light to full-fledged endangered species protection for the polar bear.

But that won’t happen unless millions of Americans speak out now.

Why? Because President Obama’s Interior Department will be under tremendous pressure from the oil lobby to maintain the Bush policy that puts oil development first and polar bears dead last.

We must make our voices heard if we are to persuade Interior Secretary Salazar to cancel Bush’s “polar bears be damned” approach.

The stakes could not be higher. In the last year alone, the Bush Administration auctioned off a vast expanse of Alaska’s Chukchi Sea to Shell and other oil giants—exposing half of America’s polar bears to potential drilling and lethal oil spills.

And only two months ago, Bush officials weakened the Endangered Species Act so badly that it no longer protects polar bears against the two deadliest threats they face: oil development and global warming.

But Interior Secretary Salazar is unlikely to defy Big Oil—unless we mobilize a nationwide outcry that can’t be ignored.

That’s why it’s so important that you send your own Citizen Petition right now and help NRDC ratchet up this next critical phase of our Polar Bear S.O.S. campaign.

Let the new Interior Secretary know you care deeply about saving the polar bear. Remind him that the American people expect our government agencies to protect our country’s wildlife—not sacrifice them for corporate profits.

Together, we can reverse eight years of relentless attacks on the polar bear—and finally give these magnificent Arctic creatures a fighting chance at survival.

http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/Rescue_the_Polar_Bear

There are few things as disturbing to me as imagining a baby polar bear trapped on a piece of ice, or (even worse) swimming with no land in sight & drowning in open water! I can’t even handle watching those commercials that mention it.

I need to work on a plan about what I can do.. I’m starting with this website.

I reduced my carbon footprint by buying a small hybrid car. I love how quiet it is when it’s working on battery power. And it doesn’t smell when idling (puts out no emissions when on battery power).

The Bush administration thinks we need to drill for oil in polar bear habitat. But what if we reduced our demand for oil, instead?

The ice caps are melting and the poor bears are suffering. =(