In the coming months, President Obama will decide whether to open U.S. Arctic waters for new oil and gas leases over the next 5 years.

He should not. In fact, he should protect our Arctic and Atlantic waters for all time.

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The Arctic is one of the planet’s most pristine places. Along the Chukchi and Beaufort seas lies a profusion of marine life—walruses, polar bears, migratory birds, beluga whales and abundant fisheries—all indicators of its rich and productive ecosystem. Opening this unique place to drilling is not worth harming our climate or risking a major spill.

I have witnessed moments in the course of the environmental movement when one single action can radically change what is possible.

The movement was born at such a moment—when Rachel Carson’s 1962 manifesto, Silent Spring, set the chemical industry back on its heels with claims about the harms of DDT. President Kennedy ordered an investigation. That led to a ban on the powerful pesticide. It transformed perceptions about the need to regulate industry.

This is one of those times.

Two months ago, in a bold reversal, the Interior Department excluded the Atlantic Ocean—wholesale—from its proposed 5-year leasing program.

But the plan still proposes drilling in the Arctic.

And without permanent protection, the administration’s plan won’t preserve these two areas into the future.

This is a moment when the President can define our national priorities for a clean energy future:

What energy sources will America tap, knowing everything we know about the threats to our climate and coastal communities? Should we jeopardize sensitive coastal waters—held in the public trust—to the risks of new offshore oil and gas operations?

President Obama and his administration have an unprecedented record of leading on climate:

Last August, the Environmental Protection Agency set the first-ever national limits on carbon pollution from power plants.

In November, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline project.

In Paris last December, the U.S. joined a 195-nation accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In January, the administration halted coal leasing on federal lands.

These are groundbreaking moves.

But if we heed climate science, here’s the reality:

We have to do more, and we have to do it fast.

Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the country. In less than 30 years, the Arctic may be stripped of its protective summer ice. Its native communities suffer as permafrost melts beneath their homes. The Arctic as we know it will change irreversibly in the decades ahead. We need to act now to protect its fragility, not magnify the risks.

The United States is already experiencing sea-level rise and extreme weather. We are resettling “climate refugees” from the Louisiana coast. Climate change poses global threats of mass migrations, food and water shortages and other national security risks.

If we approved Arctic drilling today, it would take nearly 30 years to bring that oil to market. That’s reckless and self-defeating: We will need to have transitioned away from fossil fuels long before then. Sinking infrastructure into drilling would “lock in” carbon pollution far into the future.

The U.S. must signal its full commitment to clean energy now, instead of expanding our investment of citizen-owned waters in the fossil fuels that drive climate change. If we make the right choices, we can wean ourselves off dirty energy, and embrace sources that won’t heat the planet and threaten human well-being across the globe.

And we can do it: Today, wind and sun comprise roughly 70% of all new electric generating capacity built in the U.S.

Those sources have lower risks than fossil fuels. Arctic drilling is dangerous, and oil companies are no match for the risks of a spill there. Atlantic drilling, likewise, would bring unacceptable threats to endangered whales, fish and shellfish—along with the habitats that support them. Local communities oppose industrializing their coast and putting their tourism and fishing economies at risk of a major spill.

President Obama can end these threats on his watch.

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act empowers him to “withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf”—for any reason, for all time.

Presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton used this tool to withdraw areas off of Florida, California, and the Atlantic coast, among other places. President Obama used it to protect Bristol Bay in Alaska. And he should use it again.

Great leaders, faced with hard choices, can change history.

The next logical step—in leaving a truly historic legacy on climate—is for President Obama to withdraw the Arctic and Atlantic from drilling, forever.

Frances Beinecke is a director of the Prospect Hill Foundation and a guest lecturer at Yale. She served as president of the Natural Resources Defense Council from 2006 to 2015.