TELL OBAMA TO END COMMERCIAL WHALING NOW! NRDC BIOGEMS ACTION 29APR10

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I was appalled to hear -- on Earth Day of all days -- that the International Whaling Commission has put forward a deal that would legalize commercial whaling for the first time in a generation.

Even worse, the Obama Administration has backed this deadly proposal, which would suspend the international ban on whaling and make it legal once again to kill whales for profit.

During his campaign, President Obama promised America he would oppose the killing of these magnificent creatures. It’s time for you and me to hold him to that promise.

Please call on the White House to oppose any deal that would legitimize the hunting and killing of whales.

Obama Administration officials claim that the IWC deal would be a “step forward” for whales because it could rein in Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have killed thousands of whales since 1986 by exploiting loopholes in the whaling ban.

But, in fact, this new deal is a giant step backward. It rewards those three nations for years of defying international law. It does their bidding by suspending the whaling ban for 10 years. It opens up the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to whaling. And it will not stop them from trading in whale meat or killing whales under legal loopholes like “scientific permits.”

Don’t believe for a minute that this kind of deal would phase down whaling. Instead, it would breathe new life into a dying industry.

Worst of all, the deal gives moral cover to the absurd notion that we can save whales by killing them -- instead of by banning their slaughter.

There is no moral justification for killing whales. There is no scientific justification for killing whales.

And if the Obama Administration persists in supporting a deal that encourages the killing of whales, it will tarnish not only the White House but our entire nation.

Please join me in telling President Obama to vigorously oppose this deal and instead push for a deal that closes the loopholes and ends commercial whaling once and for all!

Thanks to the efforts of NRDC, you and I have prevailed so many times in defense of our planet’s whales. We saved the gray whale’s last untouched nursery in Mexico’s San Ignacio Lagoon against Mitsubishi’s plans for industrialization. And we reined in the Navy’s use of dangerous sonar systems around marine mammals.

Now, with our own government supporting an unthinkable deal that would legalize the commercial killing of whales, we must unite again and say: Not on our watch!

I hope you’ll make your own voice heard inside the White House today. Thank you.

Pierce Brosnan
Natural Resources Defense Council