Author
amoshaun
Another good lead in to the fucked up bush fiasco in oil exploitation in Alaska and around the world. Also kind of a feal good story.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 23, 2001
10:41 AM
CONTACT: Defenders of Wildlife
Brad DeVries, 202-772-0237
Petition to Save Arctic Refuge Overwhelms White House
E-Mail System
WASHINGTON - February 23 - The White House e-mail system has been so overwhelmed
by people petitioning the president to reverse his position on allowing oil companies to drill
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, thousands of e-mails have been returned to their
senders, according to Defenders of Wildlife.
In only the first month of Defenders' electronic petition drive to save the refuge, supporters
sent more than 650,000 e-mails to President Bush and Congress.
"This phenomenal response shows that people are overwhelmingly against exploitation of
'America's Serengeti,'" Defenders president Rodger Schlickeisen says. "It's quickly
mushrooming into the largest Internet petition campaign ever."
The e-mails have been sent from the Defenders' Web site http://www.SaveArcticRefuge.org
-- as part of the organization's massive online petition drive to protect the nation's most
magnificent wildlife sanctuary and one of the few truly wild places left in the country.
Because its computers cannot handle the volume, the White House has returned thousands
of e-mails. Computer system administrators at Defenders have concluded that an
overwhelmed e-mail system at the White House is apparently to blame. An administrator
sent a letter to the White House pointing out the problem, but there has been no response.
Senate Republicans are expected to introduce a bill next week to allow drilling in the
refuge's coastal plain, even though the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the wildlife
preserve holds only a six-month supply of oil.
"BP Amoco and other multinational oil giants would destroy the habitat with its rich diversity
of wildlife -- including caribou, polar bears, wolves, muskoxen and millions of migratory birds
-- all for a supply of oil that would only last 180 days," Schlickeisen says. "And we wouldn't
see a drop of that oil for 10 years. Obviously, that won't solve our energy problems."
The first to sign Defenders' petition was Jamie Rappaport Clark, the director of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service in the Clinton administration.
"When the Bush administration proposes to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its
coastal plain to oil development, they are advocating sticking oil wells right smack in the
biological heart of the wildest place left in America. It's tugging at a thread that could unravel
the entire 19 million acre Arctic Refuge and a lot more as well," says Clark, who directed
the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1997 until Bush took office.
The petition urges Bush and Congress not to allow oil exploration in the refuge, the only
remaining five percent of Alaska's North Slope not already open to drilling. Recent
public-opinion polls show most Americans are against it, and even those who voted for Bush
oppose drilling by a 52 percent to 37 percent margin.
Defenders of Wildlife is a leading non-profit conservation organization recognized as one of
the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 425,000
members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered
species and biodiversity issues. For more information, go to http://www.defenders.org or
http://www.SaveArcticRefuge.org.