Your immediate action needed to save the polar bear!

Thanks to courtroom pressure applied by NRDC, the Bush administration has finally agreed to consider federal protection for the polar bear, whose survival is threatened by global warming.

Now, we've got a brief window of opportunity to make our voices heard. The Bush administration has extended its deadline for taking public comments before making its crucial decision about whether or not to protect the polar bear. The new deadline is June 16 -- so we must act quickly and make sure that protection becomes reality!

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.asp right now and tell the Bush administration to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

Global warming is rapidly pushing the polar bear to the brink of extinction.

Over the past three decades, more than a million square miles of the Arctic sea ice that polar bears depend on for survival has disappeared. And on the western coast of Canada's Hudson Bay, the ice is melting about three weeks earlier in the spring than it used to.

Polar bears range over hundreds of miles of sea ice in order to find mates, hunt for seals and fatten themselves up for dormancy.

But according to the best available scientific data, global warming could cause the polar bear's sea ice habitat to completely disappear by 2100! No sea ice, no polar bears. It's that simple.

If the polar bear receives federal protection, the Bush administration will be required by law to ensure that any new federal actions -- including those affecting global warming -- do not jeopardize the bear's survival or harm its essential Arctic habitat.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/polar/takeaction.aspand tell the Bush administration to ensure that global warming doesn't drive these majestic natives of the far north to extinction.

Thank you for all your efforts to protect polar bears and slow global warming.

Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council