House Majority Leader John Boehner and others are insisting that vital protections for wolves be eliminated as part of must-pass legislation to keep the federal government operating.
Ridiculous. That’s the only way to describe what’s happening in Washington, DC right now.
The House leadership is holding the federal government hostage, insisting that their extremist anti-wildlife agenda be part of a must-pass bill to keep the federal government running.
House Speaker John Boehner and his extremist allies have tucked the worst anti-environment agenda in the last 15 years in the pages of a must-pass spending bill to keep the federal government functioning.
The Senate has already rejected it once — but that’s not stopping Rep. Boehner.
Boehner and his allies in the House are insisting that Congress…
Strip vital protections from wolves;
Render the federal government powerless to save polar bears and other wildlife from the effects of climate change; and
Gut the programs that protect the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Sound serious? It is.
The House leadership is playing politics with our wildlife and our environment. It’s a reckless, scorched earth agenda against our natural heritage — if they win, the consequences will be severe.
But while these polar bear cubs enjoy their celebrity spotlight, polar bears in the wild are facing increasingly difficult problems. Jeff Corwin, Defenders of Wildlife board member and television star, talks about the plight that polar bears in the wild are facing because of global warming in the video episode (below) of “Feeling the Heat with Jeff Corwin”.
Take Action to Protect the Polar Bear Seas
The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas—sometimes called the Polar Bear Seas—are vital to the survival of America’s threatened polar bears, walrus, bowhead whales and so many other Arctic species.
Yet Shell Oil and other companies are charging ahead with plans to industrialize this crucial area without proper protections for the amazing wildlife that could be devastated by an oil spill.
Between our normal end-of-year flurry of activity and the urgency brought about by the new changes in Congress, we at Defenders asked a lot of our supporters in December. And, boy, did you respond to the call!
Thanks to caring supporters like you, Defenders of Wildlife:
Put a polar bear in Times Square. Thanks to your generous contributions, we were able to run our polar bear ad in New York’s Times Square on the CBS Jumbotron (see video of the ad at right). It ran during Christmas and New Year’s and will be up until January 20th, continuing to raise awareness about the plight of America’s threatened polar bears.
A female wolf nurses her pups in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of U.S. National Park Service.
Gave wolves a voice in Washington. When the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services—the government’s chief wolf-killing agency—recently announced its new plan to use aerial gunning to kill wolves in parts of Idaho’s National Forests, you spoke out in force.
As of the deadline for public comments, Defenders of Wildlife delivered nearly 50,000 messages in opposition to the wolf-killing plan. And you sent tens of thousands of more messages to stop the latest anti-wolf attacks in Congress.
Bison and their calves graze in Custer State Park, South Dakota.
Is geared up for 2011! More than 4,600 wildlife supporters donated to help nearly meet our $211,000 end-of-year goal, including almost 1,700 who had never before donated to support our work. This money will make a huge difference as we continue our fight to protect threatened and endangered wolves, polar bears, sea otters, bison, lynx, and more!
Thank you all for your support. We really couldn’t do it without YOU!
Vote for Defenders of Wildlife to win $200,000 and help save polar bears!
Thanks to everyone who has been voting for Defenders of Wildlife each week to help us try to win $200,000 in funding from Members Project from American Express. You can vote once a week through February 20, 2011 and this week you’re voting for polar bears!
Polar bears could be extinct in America by 2050… or, these mighty Arctic hunters could survive. It’s up to us.
Scientists say that a combination of climate change, habitat loss and other human-caused perils are pushing these beloved bears toward extinction in the wild… but new studies say that if we act now they have a real chance at survival.
Help us secure the funds we need to save polar bears. Please vote today!
Did You Know…? Polar bears are so adapted to living on ice that don’t need to drink water: they get the liquid they need from the prey they eat.
Two hundred thousand dollars can do a lot of good for polar bears and other wildlife.
It can help us stop harmful drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s polar bears. It can help us stop a disastrous oil spill in Chukchi and Beaufort Seas—sometimes called the Polar Bear Seas because of their importance to these beleaguered sea bears. It can help us assist Arctic villages learn “Bear Smart” techniques for keeping polar bears alive, instead of shooting them.
How to Vote for Defenders
The current round of voting runs through midnight on Sunday, February 20, 2011. You can vote once a week throughout the voting period. Here’s how to get started:
Scroll down to the Vote section in the lower left corner of the page. The Members Project is a partnership between American Express and TakePart, so you need to be a member of TakePart to vote. First, click the Sign Up And Vote button. NOTE: If you’re already registered and logged in with TakePart, the button will say Vote For This Charity and clicking it will take you to the final step below.
Click the Register to Vote button.
A form will pop up. Fill out all the required fields and make sure you check the boxes to accept the terms for both TakePart and Members Project. NOTE: You can use your full name as your username, including a space, if you want.
Once you’re registered, scroll down the page and click the Defenders logo. A little box will pop up.
Click the Vote button in the popup. You’ll be prompted to confirm your choice.
That’s it! Thanks for voting for Defenders of Wildlife!
Thanks to the dedicated support of caring wildlife champions like you, Defenders is currently leading the pack in the Environment and Wildlife category, with 80% of the votes. But with more than two months left to go in this round, we need to make sure we stay in the lead! Remember, you can vote once a week until February 20th!
To highlight the desperate plight of these mighty Arctic hunters and spur action to save polar bears, Defenders of Wildlife has secured time on the CBS jumbotron near Times Square through Christmas and New Year’s Eve. (Note: The ad, above, does not have an audio track.)
In a very public and prominent way, we’re calling on President Obama to secure vital habitat for these beloved bears and raising awareness about one of the most recognizable victims of climate change.
But we can’t make a difference for polar bears without you. We need to raise $65,000 by midnight tomorrow to make this ad a reality and support other polar bear-saving work. Please make your tax-deductible contribution now.
The need for action is urgent. Scientists say that America’s polar bears could disappear from the wild by 2050… unless we act now.
Scientists say that climate change and habitat loss could push America’s polar bears to extinction in the wild by 2050.
Our polar bears are pretty tough. They are uniquely adapted to one of America’s most unforgiving climates and can travel thousands of miles each year in their quest for food.
But even these mighty Arctic hunters may not be strong enough to survive the dual threat of climate change and habitat loss—which scientists say could push America’s polar bears to extinction in just 40 years.
The noise and disruptions caused by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlfife Refuge could cause polar bear mothers to abandon their cubs to die. And offshore drilling in the Chukchi Sea risks a cataclysmic oil spill from which these bears may be unable to recover.
However, many in the new Congress are still pushing for drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and even some in the Obama administration are working to fast-track drilling by Royal Dutch Shell and others in the Chukchi Sea, where our polar bears hunt to survive.
Defenders of Wildlife leads the pack when it comes to protecting wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
