Action Alerts

Help protect polar bear cubs from unnecessary harm

What's At Stake

“The more greenhouse gases we extract and consume, the bigger the problem for polar bears.” – Dr. Steven Amstrup, Chief Scientist for Polar Bears International

Polar bears are already struggling to survive in a rapidly changing Arctic. Federal policy is making things even worse. 

The U.S. Department of the Interior is deciding whether to allow oil and gas activities that harm polar bears across Alaska’s Arctic region. 

Your voice matters – tell the agency to say no to oil and gas activities like seismic testing that will put the bears at risk. 

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Oil companies often describe seismic testing as routine exploration. In reality, it is the first step toward expanded oil and gas drilling in fragile Arctic habitat – and it causes severe harm. 

Here’s what that means on the ground: 

  • 90,000-pound “thumper trucks” and other vehicles driving across tundra, crushing vegetation and damaging the surface that protects permafrost  
  • Massive steel plates pounding the ground to send shockwaves underground in search of oil  
  • Tracks and scars that can last for decades in slow-healing Arctic ecosystems  
  • Constant noise and disruption in critical wildlife habitat, including polar bear denning areas  

Once this activity begins, the impacts can last long after the testing ends. 

For polar bears, the consequences of seismic testing and other oil and gas activity can be severe. 

Mother bears rely on quiet, undisturbed dens to give birth and care for their cubs. Industrial activity can force them to abandon those dens, leaving cubs to die. Vehicles and seismic equipment can also crush dens hidden beneath the snow. 

This is happening to a population already in crisis. 

The Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear population has declined significantly, with well under 1,000 bears remaining. As climate change melts sea ice, more bears are forced onto land, directly into the path of oil and gas activity. 

And the same fossil fuel extraction driving climate change is being used to justify even more disruption. 

Earthjustice is already taking action to defend polar bears and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act. But public pressure is critical to holding agencies accountable. 

If we don’t speak out, harmful projects will continue to move forward, putting polar bears at even greater risk. 

Tell the federal government to protect polar bears and reject actions that allow harmful oil and gas activity in their habitat. 

Polar bear mother sitting on snow while her cub climbs onto her back in an Arctic landscape.
(Tom Linster / Shutterstock)

Delivery to the Department of the Interior

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Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.