09 May Work to be done to stop seismic testing for oil and gas
Right now, President Obama faces a choice that will affect our oceans for years to come. Will you encourage him to do the right thing before it’s too late?
Dangerous new offshore oil and gas expansion threatens our nation’s oceans and marine wildlife – from endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Atlantic Ocean to endangered beluga whales in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. Our oceans and all who depend on them are at risk.
If you don’t speak up on behalf of our oceans right now, no one will.
Add your name to tell President Obama to stop new oil and gas lease sales for drilling in the U.S. Arctic Ocean and seismic airgun blasting in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean.
From coast to coast we must fight the expansion of dirty and dangerous offshore oil and gas that risks the health of our oceans and all who depend on them for the short-term interest of Big Oil.
The Arctic Ocean is a dangerous place to drill. There is no way to clean spilled oil out of Arctic sea ice, and the region’s unpredictable weather limits response capabilities. So when things go bad, it’ll be very bad.
To add insult to injury, the Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, and scientists agree that burning fossil fuels is a cause of climate change. We need to take meaningful action to address climate change and rethink the idea of drilling in the Arctic Ocean.
It’s not just the Arctic Ocean that could be in trouble. President Obama has still left the door open for marine mammal harming seismic blasting to begin in the Atlantic as early as this summer.
Seismic blasting involves shooting dynamite-like blasts of compressed air to locate oil and gas below the seafloor. Blasts are so intense that sounds can be heard up to 2,500 miles from the source under certain conditions: That’s farther than the distance from Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas!
All this blasting for what? To open the Atlantic to dirty, dangerous drilling.
In the process, seismic blasting could push the few remaining North Atlantic right whales even closer to extinction, injure as many as 138,000 marine mammals, and impact the 1.4 million jobs and over $95 billion in GDP reliant on healthy Atlantic ecosystems.
It’s not too late to stop these tremendous threats to our oceans – Not yet.
Together, we can stop the push to expand dangerous and unsustainable offshore energy development. But we need to act – and act now!
President Obama: Please keep protecting the Atlantic and Arctic oceans