Winds
of drastic and potentially catastrophic change are blowing
through Alaska. Blind consumption is placing our wild ecosystems
under attack as global warming threatens the breath of life.
A visionary comprehensive energy policy must be brought forward.
Permanent Protection is our birthright and will prevent a
continued assault on mother earth.
-- Robby Romero and Dune Lankard
"Thunderstorm/America's Last Frontier"
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A
Timeless Place
This land of vast, rolling tundra, gentle foothills and jagged,
snow-capped mountains is one of the world's greatest natural
treasures. More than 140,000 caribou, packs of wolves, hardy
muskoxen, lumbering polar bears, flocks of birds, well over 130
species, depend on the Refuge for nesting, resting, reproduction
and survival. |
A
Sacred Land
Tied to this fate are the Inupiat Eskimos and Athabascan Indians
who live in harmony with this precious habitat and have since time
immemorial. Just as the caribou depend on the Arctic Refuge to
survive, the Gwich'in Inupiat Nations depend on the caribou for
their survival. The traditional culture and way of life of the
Gwich'in people is intimately interconnected with the Porcupine
Caribou, as it serves their essential needs for food, clothing,
tools, and their spiritual and social structure. The land and the
caribou are the foundation of the Gwich'in culture and life.
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You
Can Help
The future of this
irreplaceable wilderness is in peril. On the table: Whether or not to open this fragile, wild
place to oil development. Turning the Arctic Refuge's biological
heart into a sprawling industrial complex would destroy not only
this wilderness, but the culture of the Indigenous People. It
would do virtually nothing to ease U.S. energy problems. The
coastal plain needs permanent protection as wilderness.
Permanent
Protection
It's critically important that Congress hear from you. Click
here to learn how to send a strong message to Congress
and to ensure that these decision-makers understand how important
this is.
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