Defenders of Wildlife Blog

The Arctic's Chukchi Sea. Photo courtesy USFWS

WASHINGTON (November 8, 2011) – The Obama administration today announced its Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. The plan schedules 15 potential lease sales for the five year period – 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and three off the coast of Alaska.

The following is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO for Defenders of Wildlife:

“The Obama administration made the wise decision to protect vast tracts of the country’s oceans from oil and gas exploration. However, the inclusion of the Arctic Ocean in the country’s five-year drilling plan is indefensible. From the extreme and unpredictable conditions of the region to the lack of a realistic spill response, the risks of a drilling disaster in the Arctic remain too high to authorize exploratory drilling. While the announcement proposes to address these threats by deferring drilling for a handful of years, the only way to protect this fragile marine environment from the threats posed by dangerous oil and gas exploration is to take it off the table altogether.

Drilling in the Arctic Ocean poses grave threats to America's vanishing polar bears. Photo courtesy USFWS

“Instead of enabling our country’s addiction to oil for five more years, the administration should strengthen its efforts to wean America off dirty fossil fuels, accelerating the transition to a clean energy future.”

Learn more:

See how offshore drilling threatens the Arctic’s fragile marine environment.

Shell may begin drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort Sea as early as next summer. Read about the oil giant’s inadequate oil spill response plan and the threat it poses to bowhead whales and polar bears.

Visit explore.org to watch live streaming video of polar bears on their northward migration.

One of the largest carnivores in the world, the polar bear is not an animal you want to bump into. But now, thanks to Explore.org, you can watch these fascinating mammals from the safety of your own home. By tuning into one of many high-definition cameras set up in the remote wilds of the Arctic, you can track a Canadian population of polar bears as they make their way north to the Hudson Bay.

Historically, sea ice on the Hudson allows the bears to hunt seals as far as 100 miles off the coast. But climate change is having a dramatic impact on the Arctic landscape, diminishing this once-reliable habitat. This year, Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest level on record. Such trends are taking a serious toll on sea-ice dependent animals like polar bears, and in Alaska reports of drowned or starving bears, cannibalism and other aberrant behavior are increasing. Without help, these Arctic icons could disappear from U.S. shores forever.

Cameras like these offer the many who will never travel to the chilly north a rare glimpse into what life is like for these majestic animals, and hopefully inspire them to fight for polar bear survival. Charlie Annenberg, a filmmaker and founder of explore.org who spearheaded the project, said he hopes the cameras will “allow people to observe the natural world we live in with the hope that they’ll develop emotional connections with the planet.”

Photo courtesy USFWS

Don’t wait to check it out! The migration has already begun, and runs only through the end of November. Video capturing the movement is now being streamed live.

Disclaimer: you made find it difficult to tear yourself away. We at Defenders have already watched a three-bear-wrestling match, and can’t wait to see what these animals are up to next…

Learn more:

Last week saw a win for polar bears! Learn more.

Read Defenders report, Sea Bear Under Siege, to see our recommendations for helping polar bears survive in a world with less and less sea ice.

Good news came for polars bears last week when a federal judge struck down a Bush administration rule that exempted greenhouse gas emissions from regulation under provisions of the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the Department of the Interior violated provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued a special rule that excluded from regulation activities occurring outside the range of the polar bear, such as greenhouse gas emissions from big polluters like coal plants.

Thanks to Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, who challenged the Bush exemption in 2008, the government must now go back and undertake a full environmental analysis of the situation of the polar bear, and what must be done to prevent its disappearance forever.

The polar bear was the first species added to the endangered species list primarily because of threats from climate change. Its melting Arctic habitat is among the most striking examples of how warming temperatures are changing the face of the planet. Dependent on sea-ice to find food, mates and den and raise their young, polar bear populations have been severely impacted by their shrinking habitat.

Jason Rylander, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, said,  “Just this summer, Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest level on record, making polar bear protections more important than ever. Only by acknowledging and accounting for the dramatic effects of climate change can this administration give this Arctic icon a realistic chance of survival.”

But wait, there’s more! The same day, the court ruling came to uphold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to prohibit the importation of sport-hunted polar bear trophies following the listing of polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This adds another layer of protection to the imperiled Arctic icon.

Times are tough for polar bears. Hopefully, actions like this will make sea-ice survival just a little bit easier.

Learn more:

Read the full press release here.

Read Defenders report, Sea Bear Under Siege, to see our recommendations for helping polar bears survive in a world with less and less sea ice.

The holidays will be here before you know it! So now’s a great time to check out these gorgeous card designs that will not only delight the people receiving your greetings but—most important—they’ll also help support Defenders’ work to save threatened and endangered species.

Here are just a few of the cards available to order.

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Wolf Holiday Card

Polar Bears Holiday Card

Peace Holiday Card

Santa (with Defenders Mug) Holiday Card

Outdoor Scene Holiday Card

Order Your Holiday Cards Today!

You can order these cards, and many other designs, at the Defenders Holiday Card Center.

The fall colors are brilliant at the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge, Mass. Photo credit: James Weliver/USFWS

The temperature has begun to drop. Apple cider is appearing on grocery store shelves. All around us, trees are exploding into fiery reds, yellows and oranges. It’s officially fall! And what better way to enjoy the sound of leaves crunching underfoot than exploring your favorite national wildlife refuge?

Visit a National Wildlife Refuge Near You

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is celebrating National Wildlife Refuge Week, an occasion that recognizes the 555 national wildlife refuges dedicated to the protection of wildlife and habitats, and encourages you to get out and enjoy them! Last year, some 45 million Americans visited a national wildlife refuge, which are located in every state and within an hour’s drive of most major cities.

Protect a National Wildlife Refuge Far Away

But a walk in the woods (or prairie, wetland or coastline) isn’t the only way to show your appreciation for these treasured lands. In fact, you have the opportunity right now to celebrate a national wildlife refuge most people may never see with their own eyes: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Arctic refuge is the most important onshore habitat for denning polar bears. Photo credit: Norbert Rosing/National Geographic Stock

The Arctic refuge is one of America’s most important natural treasures, supporting a wide array of wildlife including arctic foxes, grizzly bears, muskoxen, Dall sheep, wolves and wolverines. Its coastal plain is the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s vanishing polar bears, as well as the calving ground of the Porcupine caribou herd. But Big Oil continues to threaten this remarkable area, falsely claiming that the amount of oil that lies beneath the refuge will solve our country’s energy crisis.

You can help prevent industrial-scale oil and gas development that would destroy the pristine nature of the Arctic refuge’s coastal plain forever. By asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to recommend that Congress designate the refuge’s coastal plain a wilderness area, you can help bring us one step closer to protecting the coastal plain and the wildlife that it protects for good. Don’t let National Wildlife Refuge Week go by without taking action - stand up and be heard!

This week, the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Experts Blog asked, “Should Obama open Arctic waters to drilling?” Defenders’ president and CEO Jamie Rappaport Clark responded with a resounding, “NO.” Read more about what she has to say about risky drilling in the pristine Arctic environment. 

It’s been a busy time for the Obama administration’s rubber stamp of Big Oil’s to do list. In August, the administration approved the first part of Shell’s plans to start drilling in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea as early as the summer of 2012, the most aggressive Arctic drilling proposal in the history of the country. And just this week, the administration reaffirmed the sale of almost 500 oil and natural gas leases in the adjacent Chukchi Sea, opening 2.8 million acres to drilling. This isn’t just giving offshore drilling the green-light; this is slamming on the accelerator, apparently with the hope or expectation that the obstacles in the road ahead—the rough, frozen Arctic seas, the harsh climate and remote location—magically vanish.

What ever happened to the Obama administration’s stated commitment to make decisions “based on sound science and the public interest, and not on the special interests?”

What ever happened to the Obama administration’s stated commitment to make decisions “based on sound science and the public interest, and not on the special interests?” Because if that commitment held true, the government wouldn’t allow drilling in the Arctic’s extremely sensitive and unique marine environment until we have filled the glaring information gaps identified by the U.S. Geological Survey just this summer. It would have acknowledged the recent studies that show that the Beaufort Sea’s Camden Bay provides habitat of “special significance” to the endangered bowhead whale. And it certainly would have heeded the U.S. Coast Guard officials’ repeated warnings that the resources to clean up an oil spill in the waters of the Arctic Ocean simply don’t exist. And yet none of that information has slowed down the “full speed ahead” attitude toward drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

Bowhead whales, courtesy NOAA

After BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, the Obama administration wisely delayed plans by Shell Oil to drill in the Arctic. Now is not the time to give in to pressure from Big Oil and forgo that prudent commitment to safety. There is still too much to learn about the pristine Arctic environment, and too much to lose if we don’t. When it comes to opening the Arctic waters to risky drilling, the administration should not let the voice of reason—and of science—fall on deaf ears.

Learn more:

Read the full question and see what others are saying on the National Journal’s Energy and Environment Expert Blog.

See how offshore drilling threatens the Arctic’s fragile marine environment.

Read more about Shell’s inadequate oil spill response plan and the threat it poses to bowhead whales and polar bears.