Only 900 Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears remain, and now this imperiled population is facing a new threat this winter: new oil wells in their habitat.
We just launched a new legal action to save these bears.
Before leaving office, the Trump administration approved a five-year, nearly year-round oil and gas exploration program in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska along the Colville River.
The area is currently free of oil and gas development, and the project needs the Biden administration's approval to drill any new wells.
We've let the U.S. Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management know we'll see them in court if they allow this desecration of the Arctic and threat to polar bears to proceed.
Exploring for oil in the area will lead to new ice roads and air strips and then near-constant traffic. That kind of noise pollution can stop polar bears from feeding, disrupt their movements, or frighten mothers and cubs from their dens.
But this polar bear population can't sustain any injuries or deaths from oil and gas activities. And polar bears in Alaska could go extinct within this century — and as early as mid-century — unless there are immediate, aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.
The Biden administration should be phasing out oil and gas development in the Arctic, not exposing imperiled wildlife to further harm and worsening the climate crisis.
Polar bears deserve a break. Arctic drilling has to become a thing of the past.
We're on watch for polar bears and all species facing extinction. We'll never give up fighting for them.