NRDC's BioGems News, February 2007

The Bush administration is inviting comments from the public on its proposal to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. This is your single best chance to make your voice heard in support of polar bear protection, so please use the link below to send your comment today. Our BioGems Defenders have already sent nearly 95,000 messages urging the administration to hold public hearings on this critical issue. Now, we need you to speak up again for polar bears, which could face extinction by the end of this century due to global warming. The administration is accepting public comments until April 9th. » Urge the Bush administration to protect the polar bear and its Arctic habitat.

NRDC SAYS "STEP IT UP!" On April 14th, environmental writer and NRDC friend Bill McKibben will lead Step It Up 2007 -- a day of rallies across the country to urge Congress to impose an 80 percent reduction in global warming emissions by 2050. NRDC staff and BioGems Defenders are helping organize rallies in Montana, Colorado, Florida and elsewhere to highlight the effects of melting glaciers, droughts, pest outbreaks, rising sea levels and other global warming dangers on our BioGems. Visit www.stepitup2007.org to find out more about taking part in this historic event. NRDC SPOTLIGHTS GRIZZLY BEAR PLIGHT Last September, NRDC grizzly bear expert Louisa Willcox led a group of scientists on an unprecedented research expedition deep into Wyoming's remote Wind River Range. The team discovered that the mountains' high altitude and glaciers have helped protect them from the mountain pine beetle, which has ravaged whitebark pines elsewhere in the Rockies in recent years as temperatures have warmed. "Our findings underscore the need to protect the Wind River backcountry as critical habitat for threatened grizzly bears, which depend on whitebark pine seeds as a major food source," said Willcox. The whitebark pine study was covered in two January 30th New York Times articles by Charles Petit, who accompanied the expedition, and will provide compelling evidence in our ongoing fight to block the Bush administration from stripping Yellowstone's grizzlies of endangered species protection. EARTH DAY GIVEAWAY April 22nd is just a few weeks away! If you're taking part in an Earth Day event this year, NRDC can provide you with handouts, including BioGems bookmarks, environmental action guides, stickers and reprints of Nature's Voice and This Green Life. To request materials, email us at biogemsinfo@nrdc.org. Be sure to include "Earth Day" in the subject line and let us know your name and mailing address, what type of event you're participating in, and the quantity of materials you are requesting. Supplies are limited. BIOGEMS DEFENDERS HIT NEW MILESTONE NRDC BioGems Defenders have now generated more than 9 million messages to elected officials, corporate chiefs and other key decisionmakers since the launch of the BioGems Initiative in 2001. In recent months, our activists have waged urgent campaigns in defense of Chile's Patagonia region, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, California's Channel Islands and other endangered wildlands. Keep up the fight -- we're almost to 10 million!