BioGems 2.0: If we can save these special places, we can save the planet

Over the years, NRDC's BioGems have ranged in size from that of a small desert lagoon to vast expanses of forests, mountains, and wilderness. Each of these places is a true natural treasure worth saving on its own merit. Yet the BioGems also raise awareness and drive policy on the overarching environmental challenges we now face, including climate change and unsustainable energy development.  However remote, the BioGems are on the frontline of our defense of the Earth.

Since the 1970s, NRDC has fought to protect America's Arctic - its greatest wilderness -from oil development.  Over the last eight years, NRDC and our BioGems Defenders have fought against the push to lease and develop vast new areas in the Arctic. This includes the off-shore spots in what we call the "Polar Bear Seas". Now, global warming is threatening the very survival of the polar bear. This struggle has made millions around the world realize that climate change is real. I am sure many have wondered:  "If we lose the polar bear, what will be next?" I certainly have.

Many of our other BioGems are threatened by plans made by the Bush Administration to lease vast areas of the western United States to energy companies who plan to replace sandstone arches and antelope with drill rigs and pipelines.   We were very encouraged by Secretary of Interior Salazar's decision this week to revoke leases in our Utah's Redrock Wilderness BioGem.  My colleague Sharon Buccino commented that this decision demonstrated that we "can have energy security without sacrificing the West's wild places."   

We are now asking Secretary Salazar to revisit "the devastating Bush policies and reverse rules and agency directives that made oil and gas drilling and oil shale development the primary uses of our public lands and that weakened protections for endangered species"  throughout the Greater Rockies.  We are also calling upon the Congress to reverse Bush Administration rules which would relax restrictions on destructive mountain top removal to produce coal which is scarring the Greater Cumberland Plateau BioGem.

Similarly, two of our newest BioGems are threatened by unsustainable energy development - the Peace Athabasca Delta in Alberta Canada - and the Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California.  The Delta wetlands - a refuge for birds and a tribal home - are now threatened by the rush to expand tars sands mining and processing in order to pipe "dirty fuels" to refineries in the U.S.   The future of the Delta and the planet are linked.  Ultimately to save the Delta, Canada and the U.S. will need to make decisions to move rapidly to a less-carbon intensive and more sustainable energy future. The Carrizo Plain's vast grasslands and endangered species face the possibility of destructive seismic exploration for oil - part of an energy strategy that is looking backwards rather than forwards and risking our country's natural heritage in the process.

Our third new BioGem is the entire nation of Costa Rica , which is home to extraordinary biodiversity.  We are working with the Government there on measures to fulfill its commitment to become the world's first carbon neutral nation by 2021.   Costa Rica can reaffirm its position as a global environmental leader and relieve the pressure on its natural areas. 

This is the power of the BioGems: they can help us to drive policy towards a low carbon future.  Each of these places is subject to threats from dirty, 20th century energy production. We need to reverse the misguided policies of the past, ease the dangers on these fragile ecosystems, and move into an era of clean energy .  Indeed, if we can save these special places, we can save the planet.