Here are the victories you helped win in 2010 from NRDC 16DEZ10

View our two-minute video. You’ll see how your online action and donations made a world of difference for imperiled wildlife and wildlands in 2010 -- as well as the critical challenges we’ll be tackling in 2011. Your support of NRDC made a huge difference to the environment in 2010 as we came to the rescue of America’s most endangered wildlife and wildlands. Take a minute now to celebrate our progress by watching a short video of our biggest wins. Thanks to the online actions you took and the generous support you gave ... ... We went to court and restored endangered species protection to 1,700 wolves in the Northern Rockies, saving hundreds of them from mass killing. ... We blocked destructive oil development in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea -- home to more than half of America’s polar bears. ... And thanks to our victory in the Supreme Court, the EPA began issuing the very first regulations to control global warming pollution from power plants and other industries. But we’re not resting on our laurels -- even during the holidays -- because some of our continent’s wildlife and last wild places are still under attack. Right now ... We’re waging a legal battle to stop the Shell oil company from drilling off the fragile coastline of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We’re mobilizing massive opposition to Mitsubishi, Anglo American and other foreign companies that want to build one of the world’s biggest open-pit mines in the heart of Alaska’s Bristol Bay BioGem. We’re fighting in court to defend America’s polar bears against an attack launched by former governor Sarah Palin, powerful industry groups and trophy hunters. After you watch our compelling video, I hope you will be inspired to make a year-end, tax-deductible gift to NRDC so that we can keep coming to the rescue of endangered wildlife and wildlands in 2011. Make no mistake: You’re the reason that NRDC is America’s most effective advocate for the environment. Your online activism and financial support have made the decisive difference again and again over the past 12 months. I look forward to hearing that you will stand with us again as we continue the fight in 2011. Sincerely, Peter Lehner Executive Director Natural Resources Defense Council P.S. Remember, the tax-deductible online contribution you make today will help NRDC work through the holidays and get a jumpstart on our 2011 campaigns to save our most embattled wildlife and wildlands.

NRDC takes pride in our careful stewardship of your contributions. Funds collected from this solicitation will be used to stop wolf hunts and also for wildlife protection or for other campaigns that allow NRDC to protect the environment in the most effective way possible.

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!

It's a golden opportunity to stop the Pebble Mine! (AND SAVE BRISTOL BAY) from NRDC

This is part of the campaign by the NRDC to stop the environmental disaster that will be the Pebble Mine in Alaska. Check out this call to action and the information about Bristol Bay and please participate by signing the petition by clicking the header or the take action button on the bottom of this page.

Tiffany and Zales have already taken the “No Pebble Pledge.” Now it’s time for Signet, which owns the Kay and Jared jewelry stores, to do the same. Please sign our Petition urging Signet to take the Pledge now. The more companies that take this pledge, the more momentum we build toward stopping the Pebble Mine and saving Bristol Bay!

There is nothing beautiful about the colossal Pebble Mine project being planned for Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed ... nothing romantic about killing salmon, poisoning wildlife or contaminating their habitats with waste from a massive gold and copper mine.

That’s why NRDC is urging leading jewelry retailers to take the No Pebble Pledge: a promise to buy no gold from the disastrous Pebble Mine.

Please sign our Petition to Signet Jewelers. They are the world’s largest specialty jewelry retailer, the company behind the Kay and Jared stores. Urge them to do what Tiffany, Zales and others have already done, and say NO to Pebble Mine gold.

We’re not throwing down the hammer -- yet. We’re first taking a positive and diplomatic tack to get Signet to do the right thing. So no matter how you feel about the jewelry industry, please join this effort to build the kind of market-based opposition we need to stop the Pebble Mine.

Because it MUST be stopped.

The very name “Pebble” Mine is bitterly ironic, because this mine would be anything but small: it would be a massive, 2,000-foot-deep, two-mile-long gold and copper mine, expected to churn up 10 BILLION tons of mining waste, laced with toxic chemicals.

You and other BioGems Defenders have stood behind Alaskan Natives and local fishermen by taking a powerful stand against Pebble Mine. Thanks to you we’ve been able to deliver more than 100,000 Letters of Protest to Britain-based Anglo American, and another 98,000 to Mitsubishi: two of the principal players in the international mega-consortium behind Pebble Mine.

But we also need to cut off demand for Pebble Mine gold before the mine is even built!

Jewelry retailers are critical to the mine because jewelry demand represents 80% of global gold production. More than 30 jewelry retailers, including Tiffany, Zales and Helzberg Diamonds have already taken the No Pebble Pledge. But so far, Signet hasn’t.

There is reason to be optimistic. Signet Group was one of the first jewelers to sign the “Golden Rules,” which promises responsible gold sourcing. Let’s encourage them to back up this statement now -- and take their environmental responsibility even more seriously.

We believe that Signet will join others in their industry and voluntarily take the No Pebble Pledge, once they see just how strong the opposition to Pebble Mine is. It’s up to us to show them!

Help take advantage of this “golden opportunity” to STOP Pebble Mine.

Please urge Signet to take the No Pebble Pledge now. It’s a simple, fast, effective step you can take to cut off the demand for Pebble Mine gold -- and show Anglo American and Mitsubishi that digging their dirty mine is not only a bad environmental decision, but a bad business decision, too.

Thank you for taking action today!

Sincerely,

Peter Lehner
Executive Director
Natural Resources Defense Council

Bristol Bay

Click the arrows at right for a short slideshow

Hard-Rock Mining Threatens Alaskan Wilderness

New gold rush jeopardizes world-class salmon runs and the bears, whales and other wildlife that depend on them.

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Steller sea lion on Round Island in Bristol Bay

All photos this page © Alaska Stock.com. Top left, Mulchatna River below Turquoise Lake in Lake Clark National Park, by Chlaus Lotscher; top right, beluga whale by Steven Kazl; above by Lon Lauber.

The cool, shallow waters of Bristol Bay are surrounded by a verdant cushion of tundra, crisscrossed by swift rivers and dotted with lakes large and small. Grizzlies, wolves, seals and whales roam this nearly untouched ecosystem, all drawn by the same lure: tens of millions of thrashing salmon, charging upstream to spawn. Huge salmon runs are the linchpin of this glorious wilderness, supporting valuable commercial fisheries, indigenous people and a vast array of wildlife. Yet the whole system could come crashing down if giant mining interests get their way.
Foreign mining companies, including Mitsubishi, Rio Tinto and Anglo American, are eyeing low-grade gold and copper deposits on pristine land in the Bristol Bay watershed in an area known as Pebble. A Bush-era management plan could open up more than 1 million acres of public land in the region to mining. The only way to extract this ore is through destructive and pollution-producing hard-rock mining.
A study of mines similar to the proposed Pebble mine showed that 85 percent of them polluted nearby waters. At Pebble, a proposed open-pit mine would be 2 miles wide (enough to line up nine of the world's longest cruise ships end-to-end) and 2,000 feet deep (enough to engulf the Empire State Building). As proposed, the mine would generate more than 9 billion tons of waste held behind a series of massive earthen dams -- all of them taller than China's Three Gorges Dam and located just 20 miles from an active fault line.
A single accident here would be disastrous. But even the construction and operation of the mine could disrupt salmon migration and jeopardize the larger ecosystem. It’s a risk most local Alaskans are not willing to take -- the true gold of this region, they say, is its fish and wildlife.