Alaska’s Arctic: Ecosystems at the Top of the World

Polar Bears are threatened by global warming and oil exploration.

The Arctic is a vast and remote tapestry of rich terrestrial and marine ecosystems.  To some it’s an icy wilderness that serves as essential habitat for whales, caribou, polar bears, walrus, seabirds, and fish.  To others it’s a home that provides nourishment and cultural identity for communities that have subsisted for millennia on the Arctic’s bounty.

To resource extraction companies, however, it’s a source of profits—virgin territory wide open for development.   America’s addiction to oil is the driving force behind record profits and unprecedented proposals to open previously off-limit swaths of the Arctic.  Despite the ecological damage that both this development and climate change will wreak, little is being done to protect this dynamic region.

Pacific Environment is working with partners in the native, fishing, environmental and scientific communities to safeguard important areas—including habitat for bowhead whales, polar bears, walrus, seals, seabirds, and fish. By strengthening coalitions, attending community meetings, testifying to government officials and garnering public support, we’re working to keep Big Oil out of America’s arctic seas.