Dear Friend ,

The Polar Bear Seas, off the coast of Alaska, are home to a dizzying array of wildlife, including 20% of the world's polar bears, grey whales that migrate from the Baja Peninsula every year, and hundreds of kinds of birds. Alaska Native peoples have coexisted with these animals for centuries.

Take action now to protect the Polar Bear Seas from climate disruption and oil drilling.

Sadly, this area is in danger: America's Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the nation. Polar bears now must swim for miles to find food, and Alaska Native peoples are finding it harder and harder to maintain their way of life.

And we recently learned that Shell Oil, once again, is trying to drill in America's Arctic. As if all that's not bad enough, the Obama administration is considering allowing even more oil and gas drilling in the Polar Bear Seas for years to come. This would move us away from a clean energy future and increase our reliance on dirty fuels.

Tell President Obama: America's Arctic is too special, and too fragile, to drill.

Over the last two years, Shell has shown over and over again that we can't trust oil companies to operate safely in the Arctic. Last new year's eve, their drill ship crashed on an island off the coast of Alaska 1 -- who knows what would have happened if they had been allowed to drill? But right now, Big Oil is putting an enormous amount of pressure on President Obama to open up even more areas of the Polar Bear Seas to drilling the coming years.

President Obama needs to hear from you: tell him to protect the Polar Bear Seas.

Thank you for everything you do for the environment,

Dan Ritzman

Sierra Club Arctic Program Director

P.S. We need to flood President Obama with comments that support protecting the Arctic. Forward this email to your friends and family, or share the alert on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the buttons below:

[1] "Shell Arctic rig runs aground off Alaska," Wall Street Journal, January 1, 2013.