UPDATE, 5/23/07:

See also: Tell the Bush Administration to Protect the Last 300 Beluga Whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet!, via the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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UPDATE, 5/18/07:

See also: Take Action - Beluga Whales Need Your Help to Survive, via the Ocean Conservancy.

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UPDATE, 4/22/07:

See also: Protect Alaska’s Beluga Whales by the Center for Biological Diversity. FYI: the action alert was released 4/20, so it appears that a decision was not yet reached as of Friday. Additionally, CBD gives an Campaign Expiration Date of June 19, 2007 - so get to it!

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Via Defenders of Wildlife:

Belugas on the Brink!

The Cook Inlet once teemed with up to 1300 beluga whales — a genetically distinct population of these white whales. But sadly, their numbers have dropped to around 300 — and they could vanish forever within our lifetime unless we act now!

Federal officials will decide soon whether to list the Cook Inlet belugas as an endangered species. But they need to hear from you.

Urge the National Marine Fisheries Service to list Cook Inlet belugas as “endangered” and protect these creatures for future generations. A decision could come as early as April 18th — so please take action today!

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts defenders of wildlife wildlife conservation whales beluga whales cook inlet NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service endangered species alaska esa endangered species act center for biological diversity nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council

UPDATE, 4/30/07, via NRDC:

One more last-minute alert and sample letter, this time from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Take action here.

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UPDATE, 4/24/07, via Audubon:

The Forest Service has released its draft plan and environmental impact statement (EIS) for managing the Tongass National Forest in Alaska for the next 10-15 years. Currently, the Tongass is the only national forest in the United States where road building and commercial logging are allowed in roadless areas, a result of the December 2003 decision by the current administration to exempt the Tongass from the national Roadless Rule, which prohibits most commercial logging in the remaining roadless areas of all other national forests.

Public comments on the draft plan are due Monday, April 30th. This is your opportunity to tell the Forest Service to protect the remaining intact watersheds (roadless areas) of highest ecological value in America’s largest national forest and the world’s most significant region (along with British Columbia) of old-growth temperate rainforest. The Forest Service will then review your comments and make a decision later this summer.

Click here to take action.

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Via Campaign for America’s Wilderness:

Protect America’s Largest National Forest

The Tongass National Forest, located in south- eastern Alaska, is the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. This home to bald eagles, spawning salmon and brown and black bears is a natural wonder that deserves our care and respect. However a new management plan from the Forest Service would allow commercial logging and development in some of the wildest areas in the forest: roadless areas home to some of the oldest and largest trees and best habitat for fish and wildlife.

Please take action before April 30 and tell the Forest Service to fix its plan.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts Campaign for America’s Wilderness forests national forests Tongass National Forest Alaska rainforest logging wildlife conservation audubon nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Help protect Greater Yellowstone’s last grizzly bears

The Bush administration is weighing a proposal that would allow oil and gas development and off-road vehicle use in critical grizzly bear habitat in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest.

We need your immediate online action to protect grizzly bears from this destructive activity. Please act quickly. The deadline for public comments is Wednesday, March 28!

Go to www.savebiogems.org/bears/takeaction right away and urge the Bush administration to adopt a revised management plan for the Shoshone that protects the forest’s remaining wild expanses and declares it off-limits to destructive oil and gas drilling.

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council Wyoming Shoshone National Forest bears grizzly bears oil gas drilling wildlife conservation

Three new action alerts, all from the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Tell Congress to get serious about stopping global warming

Scientists agree that unless we act soon to significantly reduce global warming pollution, average temperatures will continue to rise, causing heat waves, rising sea levels, droughts and wildfires. Urge your senators to co-sponsor and support legislation that would cut global warming emissions.

Tell your representative to raise fuel efficiency standards now

Congress can take immediate action to reduce global warming pollution and break our addiction to oil by raising the fuel economy standards for our cars and trucks. Urge your representative to co-sponsor a bill that would increase these standards.

Urge the Bush administration to appoint NRDC’s Kate Wing to an important oceans council

Gov. Schwarzenegger has nominated NRDC’s Kate Wing for a seat on the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees fishing activities off the west coast. Urge the Bush administration to follow through with this nomination and appoint Kate to the council.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council global warming climate change congress 110th congress Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 energy, fuel efficiency fuel efficiency standards pollution oil Kate Wing Pacific Fishery Management Council conservation wildlife fishing

UPDATE, 5/11/07:

Another alert, this time from the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Help save wild Colorado’s archeological treasures

The Bush administration wants to sacrifice more than one million acres of outstanding wildlife habitat and archeological sites in northwest Colorado to destructive oil and gas drilling and off-road vehicle use.

We need your immediate action to block this proposal, which would cause irreparable damage to fragile wildlands including the world-renowned Vermillion Basin, home to one of the most spectacular collections of ancient petroglyphs in the country.

Please click here to tell the Bush administration to protect our natural and cultural heritage by banning harmful drilling and off-road vehicle use in the Vermillion Basin and all other wilderness-quality lands in this region.

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Via The Wilderness Society:

Colorado Wildlands at Risk

From sweeping sagebrush basins to rainbow-colored badlands, the Little Snake Resource Area boasts some of Colorado’s most rugged and wild landscapes; world-class elk, mule deer, and pronghorn hunting; ancient petroglyph-filled canyons; and excellent hiking and whitewater rafting.

We need to let the BLM know that this area should be protected. Alarmingly, the BLM has published a draft management plan that would relegate most of these lands to irresponsible oil and gas development, road building, and off-road vehicle (ORV) use.

The damaging effects of this proposal to the wide-open landscapes and rural western lifestyle of the region would be widespread and long-term. That’s why we need your help today - to take action and convince the BLM to adopt a responsible, sustainable plan that will protect wildlife and special places like the Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts the wilderness society wildlife wilderness conservation Colorado Little Snake Resource Area BLM oil gas development off-road vehicle ORV NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Protect Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies

Even as unbridled oil and gas development despoils wildlands and communities across the West, the Bush administration has proposed drilling 4,400 new natural gas wells in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley. Nestled between the Wind River and the Wyoming ranges, this lush valley offers a winter refuge for thousands of pronghorn and mule deer, as well as roost sites for bald eagles. Expanding drilling in this region would scar the landscape with roads, pipelines and transmission lines and could pollute the fisheries of the Green and New Fork rivers. Even the Bureau of Land Management has admitted that the plan would eliminate crucial protections and further degrade the valley’s wildlife habitat.

» Tell the Bush administration to protect the outstanding wild ranges of the Upper Green River Valley from gas drilling.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council Yellowstone Rockies Greater Rockies natural gas wells drilling gas oil Wyoming Upper Green River Valley gas drilling conservation wildllife

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Speak out to save Canada’s old-growth forests!

The Manitoba government still has not honored its pledge to permanently protect the Poplar-Nanowin Rivers traditional lands in our Heart of the Boreal Forest BioGem.

Your urgent action is needed to ensure that Manitoba makes good on its repeated promises. Mounting proposals for clearcut logging, roadbuilding and industrial hydropower development loom over this irreplaceable habitat for threatened woodland caribou, moose and millions of songbirds.

Previous alert (dated 11/21/06) here.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council Canada conservation Poplar-Nanowin Rivers Manitoba logging old growth forest Boreal Forest Poplar River First Nation

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Tell the Bush administration not to allow a new dirty coal plant in Nevada

The Bush administration is considering allowing a huge new coal-fired power plant complex to be built on 2,800 acres of federal land in eastern Nevada. The plant’s outdated technologies would unnecessarily pollute the region’s water and air (including threatening the air in Great Basin National Park) with mercury, smog and soot. Mercury is particularly hazardous for developing fetuses and small children, and soot causes asthma attacks, heart disease and other health problems.

In addition, the proposed coal plant would emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming. Coal is the largest source of global warming pollution in the United States, and coal mining destroys fragile landscapes and contaminates streams and ponds. Adding insult to injury, the hefty price tag for the plant’s construction most likely means that Nevadans’ utility bills would increase.

We have cleaner and healthier options for meeting the region’s energy needs, with no loss of comfort or convenience, and without ruining the environment and endangering Nevadans’ health
in the process.

The Bush administration is accepting public comments on the proposed power plant through this Monday, February 26th.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts NRDC Natural Resources Defense Council coal energy Nevada pollution carbon dioxide climate change global warming

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council:

Tell the Bush Administration to protect polar bears and their critical habitat

Polar bears are completely dependent on Arctic sea ice to survive, but 80 percent of that ice could be gone in 20 years and all of it by 2040. Polar bears are already suffering the effects: birth rates are falling, fewer cubs are surviving, and more bears are drowning. The Bush Administration’s proposal to list the polar bear as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act is a crucial first step toward ensuring a future for these magnificent Arctic creatures. Yet the administration’s proposal does not designate “critical habitat” for protection, even though melting habitat from global warming is the main threat to the polar bear’s survival.

Submit your Official Citizen Comment urging the Fish and Wildlife Service to finalize the listing of the polar bear and designate its critical habitat.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council conservation climate change global warming bear polar bear ESA Endangered Species Act endangered species

Via the Natural Resources Defense Council (and for California residents only):

Tell Governor Schwarzenegger to appoint proven environmentalists to the state water board

California is home to 5,000 lakes and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, many of which provide drinking water and swimming, fishing and other recreational opportunities for millions of Californians. But the state’s waters are threatened by pollution (during just one winter storm, more than one billion gallons of untreated pollution can wash over the land and into area waters threatening fish, birds and people), and global warming is expected to put even greater strain on our supply of clean drinking water by changing the amount and timing of precipitation on which we currently depend.

The State Water Resources Control Board is charged with protecting water quality and balancing competing demands for the state’s water by establishing safety standards and developing water protection plans, allocating water rights and guiding nine regional water boards. Each of five state water board members are appointed to four-year terms by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. In the coming months Governor Schwarzenegger will appoint up to two new board members; these new board members will help shape water policy into the next decade.

Given the state water board’s critical importance and the increasing demands on California’s vital water resources, NRDC and other leading environmental organizations have endorsed a slate of candidates for the upcoming appointments with proven track records of environmental protection and shared these names with Governor Schwarzenegger’s office. Now he needs to hear from other concerned Californians that these appointments are too important to entrust to anyone who has not demonstrated a proven commitment to protecting our precious water resources.

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Tagged: environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist action alerts nrdc Natural Resources Defense Council Governor Schwarzenegger California water water board water quality pollution global warming climate change