Thank President Obama for a Big Win in the Arctic! | WPN World People News

For weeks now, Americas have watched as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has become a slow-motion environmental catastrophe – proving that there is ultimately no such thing as safe offshore drilling.

In spite of this disaster, Shell Oil had planned to begin new offshore drilling as early as July in the fragile and dangerous waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

On May 27, President Obama announced that he had decided to halt new drilling off the coast of Alaska until at least 2011. This decision marks a huge victory in our efforts to protect the vital Arctic ecosystem. Members of WWF's Conservation Action Network like you played a key role, sending thousands of calls and emails to the White House and Interior Secretary Salazar.

President Obama did the right thing by taking immediate actions to ensure that the Arctic Ocean does not become the site of the next oil disaster. Thank him for heeding our call to stop Shell from drilling, and ask him to take the next steps to prevent another oil spill catastrophe and to break our addiction to the dirty fossil fuels that are polluting our oceans, our coasts and our atmosphere:

Source: World Wildlife Fund