YOU CAN HELP ALASKA'S BRISTOL BAY STAY PRISTINE

It’s a disaster in the making. And we need your help right now to alert millions of Americans.


The British mining giant, Anglo American, wants to dig a vast open-pit mine and put 9 billion tons of waste smack in the middle of Alaska’s Bristol Bay paradise: home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, an array of magnificent wildlife and Native communities that have thrived here for thousands of years.

NRDC has produced a powerful ad that will stand in support of those local communities by sparking nationwide attention and opposition to the Pebble Mine. But we must swiftly raise $100,000 to place it in the national edition of the New York Times next week!

You can make it happen. If just a few thousand supporters like you each make a donation, we can make sure our ad sounds the alarm and puts tens of thousands more signatures on our Petition of Protest in the critical days leading up to Earth Day.

On Earth Day -- April 22 -- Americans will speak with one voice when NRDC and Native Alaskans deliver our Petition of Protest, with more than 100,000 signatures, to the British mining giant at its annual Shareholders Meeting in London.

Most Americans have no idea that Anglo American and its Canadian partner, Northern Dynasty Minerals, are scheming to dig this 2,000-foot-deep, two-mile-long gold and copper mine just above Alaska’s fabled Bristol Bay -- destroying vast expanses of pristine salmon habitat.

... Or that Pebble Mine is sited in a known earthquake zone where its colossal earthen dams -- some larger than China’s Three Gorges Dam -- could release vast quantities of contaminants in the event of a quake.

... Or that Anglo American’s reported record is littered with environmental contamination from Zimbabwe to Ireland ... from South Africa to Nevada.

But with your help, millions of Americans will know within a matter of days.

When the American people find out the cold, hard facts, they will be outraged. They will go online and sign our Petition of Protest. And they will send a message loud and clear that Americans will NOT stand for the contamination and destruction of Alaska’s Bristol Bay wilderness. Not on Earth Day. Not on any day.

So please, read the full ad right now and make an emergency online contribution to help us run it next week.

Make no mistake: we can still force Anglo American to abandon the disastrous Pebble Mine scheme. But Anglo American is a $50 billion company -- and they will spend whatever it takes to build their dirty mine. We can’t outspend them, but if we unite with local opponents in their courageous stand against the mine, we can rally a national outcry to stop it.

Please do your part to run this urgently needed ad and help defend our environment in the most effective way possible.

Together, we can protect the pristine paradise of Bristol Bay and prevent this disaster-in-the-making.