An Important Message from Robert Redford

Dear Hot Springs and Public Land Users & Supporters,

The Bush Administration and Congressional leaders are shamelessly exploiting Hurricane Katrina as the latest excuse to hand over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil industry.

Given the massive oil spills still devastating the Gulf Coast, it defies belief that our leaders are rushing headlong to hand over America's greatest wildlife sanctuary to the oil lobby.

Instead of making America more energy efficient -- the fastest way to meet our energy needs and avoid oil supply shocks -- they would sponsor yet another corporate raid on our natural heritage.

This cynical exploitation of a national tragedy has revealed, as nothing else could, the complete bankruptcy of President Bush's pro-polluter energy policies -- policies inspired by nineteenth-century oil barons.

Five years of coddling the oil industry has given us higher gas prices and left us more vulnerable than ever to oil shortages -- not to mention oil spills, air pollution, despoiled public lands, and catastrophic global warming.

You and I must not let the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge become the next preventable casualty of this president's failed policies.

Within the next few weeks, Congress will cast its make-or-break vote on a Budget Reconciliation Bill that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge. I urge you to pour your heart and soul into defeating that bill.

If you've alerted five friends to the urgency of this effort, mobilize five more:

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/redfordarctic/tellafriend.asp

Make a donation so that the NRDC Action Fund can run ads mobilizing the public in key Congressional districts:

https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/arcticad/donate.asp

Write a personal, hand-written letter to your Representative:

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/redfordarctic/arcticvoters.asp

Please do what it takes to win. Because all the beauty and wildness we've worked so hard to protect over the past 30 years could be lost in a single day.

We can win this fight, but only if we build overwhelming public pressure on Congress one person at a time. Thank you for joining with me to make it happen.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
NRDC Action Fund

-There's no time like the present to start making a difference, our public lands are in urgent need of our support - or they will become lost to us forever. -Josh