TAKE ACTION

Here is how you can help protect America's Arctic today!

URGENT: THANK PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR PROTECTING THE ARCTIC REFUGE AND ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIODS TO BOLSTER NEW ARCTIC PROTECTIONS!

President Biden took an essential step towards protecting America's Arctic and our climate by canceling the remaining unlawful oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge) issues under President Trump!

The Biden Administration also announced two proposed conservation measures that would increase protections for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Reserve) and address the legally flawed oil and gas program in the Arctic Refuge.

The Biden Administration needs to hear from you that you support these important steps, and that you want additional durable and bold protections that build on these recent actions to permanently protect America's Arctic.

This vast and vibrant landscape is key to sustaining local and Alaska Native communities, mitigating climate impacts, and safeguarding global biodiversity.

What happens in America's Arctic affects everyone on Earth.

STEP 1: SIGN your name to the public comments (RIN 1004-AE95 and DOI-BLM-AK-0000-2021-0006-EIS).

To President Biden and Secretary Haaland:

I'm writing to express my deep concern over ConocoPhillips' Willow Oil Project on federal lands in Alaska's Western Arctic.

Thank you for taking a key step towards protecting America’s Arctic and our climate by cancelling the illegally held oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge. Since day one, we have been heartened by your efforts to ensure that the Arctic Refuge is managed in a way that protects Indigenous rights and our climate and we applaud your administration for addressing these unlawful leases. We are grateful for your work to protect this unparalleled landscape and the people it sustains!

We also thank you for announcing two proposed conservation measures that take a step towards protecting America’s Arctic, including a robust environmental review of the Trump administration’s illegal oil and gas program in the Arctic Refuge and increased protections for 12 million acres of Special Areas in the Western Arctic Reserve. These actions represent an important start towards meaningfully protecting America’s Arctic from new oil and gas leasing, and we urge your administration to take additional bold actions in order to durably protect this critical landscape from the imminent threats of fossil fuel development. Further protecting the tens of millions of acres of culturally and biologically rich lands in America’s Arctic presents your administration with a tremendous opportunity to build upon your climate and environmental justice goals. The science is clear – in a region where temperatures are increasing at four times the rate of the rest of the planet, allowing drilling in America’s Arctic will only worsen the devastating climate impacts we are seeing across the country and further harm communities that are already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

What happens in America’s Arctic impacts every single person on Earth. It is imperative - for Indigenous Peoples, for wildlife, and for our increasingly imperiled planet - that your administration take the strongest possible measures to advance America’s global climate leadership by increasing protections for America’s Arctic.

STEP 2: SHARE the message on your social media! Copy the sample post below and click the image to save.

@Potus recently announced new measured to increase protections for #AmericasArctic! This is exciting progress toward safeguarding special areas in the Western Reserve and ensuring there is no fossil fuel development in the Arctic Refuge.

You have until Oct. 21, 2023 to add your name to the public comments and let President Biden know we should take every possible step to #ProtectTheArctic. It takes less than 1 minute to visit ProtectTheArctic.org and add your comment!

WHAT'S GOING ON? | On Sep 6, 2023 President Biden canceled the remaining illegal leases in the Arctic Refuge and announced new protections for +12 million acres of Special Areas in the Western Arctic/Reserve and a strengthened environmental review of the Congressionally mandated oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic Refuge.

These measured are exciting positive progress on Arctic conservation! By canceling the remaining unlawful leases issued under Present Trump in the Arctic Refuge, the Biden Administration has demonstrated its commitment to Indigenous rights, our climate, and biodiversity. At the same time, this summer has brought an onslaught of shattered heat records and climate-driven natural disasters, and the urgency to take bold, decisive action as a global climate leader could not be more imperative. That's why we're asking President Biden to double down on his recent conservation measures, and do more to permanently protect the American Arctic.

WHO IS DOING IT? | President Biden

America's Arctic has faced a recent onslaught of setbacks from oil and gas leases under President Trump to the recent approval of ConocoPhillips' Willow Project. President Biden's recent measured to strengthen conservation of Arctic lands is a move in the right direction. Now is the time to urge the Biden administration to take additional bold actions to help sustain Alaska Native communities, safeguard vital wildlife and migration routes, and rollback the threat of oil and gas development on this environmentally critical land.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? | America's Arctic is vital to Indigenous peoples, iconic wildlife, and global climate mitigation

The Arctic is warming 4x faster than the rest of the planet. A healthy Arctic stabilizes the jet stream, reducing extreme weather events like the recent record flooding in Vermont and catastrophic fires across Hawaii and the western US. It's an enormous carbon sink for the entire planet, mitigating the worst impacts of climate change all around the globe. It is the ancestral homeland of Indigenous Peoples who depend upon access to clean water and unpolluted resources for traditional livelihoods and food security. And it is vital habitat for American wildlife like polar bears, bowhead whales, caribou, and wolves.

Watch the video below to learn more on how America's Arctic impacts everyone on Earth, and and explore the entire 5-part series of 1 minute videos for how the Arctic impacts global biodiversity, economies, climate and food webs.

BUT WILLOW WAS ALREADY APPROVED. CAN NEW MEASURES REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE? | Yes! We can't afford to give up. Key protections could keep oil and gas out of most of the critical carbon sink areas and migration routes.

We would love to see the entirety of America's Arctic permanently protected and we won't stop fighting for that! But in the meantime, it's critical that we push for every inch of protection we can, backed up by broad public support. President Biden's new conservation measured open the door to expanding protections for some of the most critical ecological sites within the Western Reserve and reversing Trump-era oil and gas leasing inside the Arctic Refuge. With positive momentum on our side, NOW is the moment to let President Biden know we support his push for Arctic protections, and want him to make those protections as strict and far reaching as possible.

OK! WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT? | Add your name to the public comment period and let President Biden know you support permanent protection for America's Arctic.

Follow the steps above to add your name to the public comment periods. Then use the social media asset provided - or share your own - to help let more people know what they can do to #ProtectTheArctic!