Two rivers run through it, UPDATE ON THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP PEBBLE MINE from NRDC 17NOV10

		“Please watch this short video about a disaster waiting to befall an American natural treasure.” -- Robert Redford The proposed Pebble Mine may be the worst corporate assault on America’s natural heritage that no one’s ever heard of. I need your help to change that -- and fast. Please watch NRDC’s new, two-minute video about this approaching disaster. Global mining giants -- including the Anglo American corporation, Mitsubishi and Rio Tinto -- would gouge one of the world’s largest open-pit mines out of Alaska’s incomparable Bristol Bay wilderness. My friends at NRDC call it the worst project they’ve ever seen -- and they’ve seen hundreds of them. That’s because this colossal mine would be built at the very headwaters of our planet’s greatest wild salmon river systems: the Kvichak and the Nushagak. Tens of millions of salmon course through this unspoiled Eden, feeding not just an abundance of bears, whales, seals and eagles but also the Alaskan Native communities that have thrived here for thousands of years. Nothing like this place exists anywhere else on Earth. It is a remnant of American wilderness as it used to be, the kind of mythic landscape that Norman MacLean had in mind when he famously wrote: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” And it is right here -- in the heart of this American Eden -- that foreign mining giants want to excavate their 2,000-foot-deep Pebble Mine. This monstrosity will spew some 10 billion tons of mining waste, laced with toxic chemicals, that must be held back forever by massive earthen dams up to 50 stories tall -- all in an active earthquake zone. The Pebble Mine is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. If it pollutes the Kvichak and the Nushagak River systems, it will take down not only the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery but the awe-inspiring ecosystem that depends on it. America has sacrificed too many rivers and wildlands to the mining industry, which has consistently left them despoiled and unrecognizable -- before sticking us with the astronomical cleanup costs. There is still time to save Bristol Bay from a similar fate. After you watch our new video, tell the mining giants you won’t let them plunder and destroy one of America’s greatest natural treasures in order to line their own pockets. Please join with me and NRDC -- and thousands of Alaskan Natives, fishermen and conservationists -- in fighting the Pebble Mine and saving this remnant of our disappearing natural heritage. Sincerely, Robert Redford Trustee, Natural Resources Defense Council P.S. After you watch the video and take action, you’ll have an opportunity to forward my message to other environmentally concerned people. Please take a few seconds to spread the word. I am convinced we can stop the Pebble Mine by alerting one million Americans to what’s at stake. Building this kind of outcry needs to happen one person at a time, starting with you. Thank you for doing your part!