Help Save the Spirit Bear Coast
The Spirit Bear is a wildlife treasure as unique to North America as the panda is to China. Native only to the coastal rainforest of Canada's British Columbia, it is a race of black bears in which a recessive gene causes one out of ten cubs to be born all white.
A decade ago, NRDC helped save the world's last 400 Spirit Bears and their rainforest home from clearcut logging. Now, they are threatened again -- this time by Big Oil.
A pipeline carrying the world's dirtiest oil from the Alberta tar sands to the land of the Spirit Bear could end in disaster, dooming the white bear to oblivion.
Please sign this Letter of Protest demanding that the province of British Columbia actively oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline.
To: Christy Clark
Premier of British Columbia
I am appalled that British Columbia is allowing Enbridge, Inc. to proceed with plans for the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline despite the enormous risks it poses to the Spirit Bear Coast and the unanimous opposition of the First Nations who stand to suffer the most.
As a fellow resident of North America, I ask that you not allow this spectacular piece of our shared natural heritage to be destroyed by a pipeline rupture or a supertanker spill of the world's dirtiest oil. Such a senseless and avoidable disaster could devastate whale populations and other vulnerable marine wildlife, imperil the First Nations' way of life and threaten the very existence of the iconic Spirit Bear. Even the CEO of Enbridge has said that he can't guarantee a spill will not occur.
More than 70 First Nations along the pipeline and supertanker route have voiced their unified opposition to this project. I ask that you join with B.C. First Nations in opposing the pipeline and that you honor the tanker ban adopted by the Coastal First Nations.
We have far cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy than tar sands oil, which is already destroying the Boreal forest and driving climate havoc. I call on you to prevent this disaster-in-the-making by opposing the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline and large oil tanker traffic along the Spirit Bear Coast.
