Save the Polar Bears

The Bush Administration announced yesterday that it is proposing to

protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act a crucial
first step toward saving the bear from the ravages of global warming.
It's nothing short of a holiday miracle. Few expected the Bush
Administration -- which has missed no chance to deny the reality of
human-caused global warming -- to do the right thing for the polar
bear.
But you left them no choice!
One year ago, you helped send NRDC and our allies to court, where we
FORCED the Administration to begin reckoning with the strong
evidence that polar bears could lose 100 percent of their Arctic habitat
to rising temperatures.
You and other online activists also sent more than 100,000 Petitions
urging the Administration to act NOW while there's still time to save
the polar bear.
In the end, even the Bush Administration couldn't deny the distress
signals coming from the Arctic: polar bears are drowning in record
numbers . . . 25 percent of their populations are declining . . . and 100
percent of the ice at the North Pole could be gone by the summer of
2040!
These signals are an URGENT CRY from the North that the time for halfmeasures and delay is over.
The Administration's new proposal would require the government to
prepare a recovery plan for the polar bear. And that plan could AND
SHOULD include strategies to deal with the global warming pollution
that is driving the rapid melting of sea ice.
But the Administration's proposal is just that: a proposal. This lifeline
could be cruelly yanked away in the months ahead.
Getting the proposal approved and finalized will take an immense show
of public support -- and enough funds for NRDC to turn back a tsunami
of opposition from big industrial polluters.
So while we're savoring today's historic victory, WE ARE ALREADY
PREPARING for the next round of this all-out fight to save the polar
bear.

I will be contacting you soon with information on how to make your

own voice heard in support of the Administration's proposal.
But right now, the single most important thing you can do for polar
bears is make a tax-deductible, holiday donation that will help mobilize
millions of people on their behalf:
www.savebiogems.org/polar/donate_t
Your year-end support will enable NRDC to mount a massive campaign
showing that the American people will NOT accept extinction as an
option for the polar bear.
At the height of the holiday season, it's especially difficult
to imagine a North Pole without ice and without polar bears.
But, with your ongoing support, we're going to do EVERYTHING
POSSIBLE to make sure that such an unthinkable future does not come
to pass.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
P.S. I'm sure you'll feel proud to read of the role that you and NRDC
played in the latest victory for polar bears. You can read one of the
national stories by clicking here: