Mar 23, 2011

Nightingale Island

South Atlantic: Due to shipwreck of freighter, dead penguins have washed ashore and thousands of penguins are soaked in crude oil.


Click for related news:
Oil spill in South Atlantic killing wildlife

from NYTimes

from Forbes (including audio of rescue):

Rare Penguins Covered By Oil After Ship Runs Aground

Oil-soaked penguins (©Trevor Glass,Tristan da Cunha Conservation Dept.)

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Leda Huta, Endangered Species Coalition wrote:

Liz,
Stop the Next SpillOne the eve of the one-year anniversary of the BP Oil spill, we're learning of yet another catastrophic oil spill--this time in the South Atlantic Ocean.  This spill is threatening an entire colony of endangered penguins.  Thousands of the birds have been coated with oil, potentially decimating nearly half of the endangered Northern Rockhopper penguin population.  And today, news is breaking of another spill off the coast of Louisiana. 
We can't keep saddling wildlife with the bill for our addiction to oil. Their habitat must be protected and safeguards maintained to prevent more disasters.
Please donate $11 to support our work to protect our oceans, coasts and the species that live there from further disasters.
Unfortunately, members of the Congressional House Majority remain intransigent--continuing their efforts to open our coasts and public lands to risky drilling and  further scale back hard-fought safeguards that have prevented another tragedy on our shores.
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) isn't content with the nearly five thousand drilling permits that were given to Big Oil in 2010. In a recent interview on Fox News1, Chairman Hastings said he supports drilling in protected areas and announced this month that if he can't open the still-recovering Gulf of Mexico to expansive drilling, the "next logical place" for Big Oil and Gas---his number one industry contributor--is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the home to wolves, polar bear, wolverines and nearly 180 bird species.
Will you support our work with a $11 contribution today?
In a recent The Hill Op-Ed, Chairman Hastings said he opposes what he described as the Obama administration's "burdensome regulations" on Big Oil and Coal and denounced the administration's Wild Lands policy. Despite the fact that this policy protects only a single acre for every 42 acres that are leased for drilling, members of his party are referring to it as a "War on the West".
Liz, it's distressingly clear. Chairman Hastings and the House Majority won't stop until they've opened as much of America's public lands and fragile coasts to Big Oil and Gas as they're able and pummeled the regulatory safeguards that would prevent another environmental catastrophe. We need your support today to continue this fight to save species in the halls of Congress and on the ground across the nation. Can you make a 100% secure online $11 species-saving contribution right now?
2 catastrophic oil spills in less than 12 months is more than the planet's endangered and threatened species should have to bear. Please support our efforts to protect our oceans, coasts and the imperiled species that rely on them.
This is will be a difficult job. But with your help, we can assure that these species and their homes are protected from future disasters to the best of our nation's ability.
Thank you for your support of endangered species.
Sincerely,
Leda Huta
Leda Huta
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition
P.S. If the links in the email do not open in your email client, please paste this URL into your internet browser to make your 100% secure donation to support our fight to save species:https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6014/t/8656/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2342
1. 3/8/2011 House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) on FOX News' Your World with Neil Cavuto.