Gao Zhisheng Gets a Family Visit

Good News! Human Rights in China is reporting that Chinese human rights lawyer and prisoner of conscience Gao Zhisheng was permitted a visit by his brother and father-in-law on January 12,

Gao’s mind seemed clear and he spoke normally. His younger brother was not able to find out when Gao is scheduled to be released, or whether he received the letters from his wife and children.

This was the first family visit since March 2012. Most prisoners are permitted monthly visits.  Amnesty International - Pasadena has been advocating for Gao's release for some years. You can help us by sending greetings to Gao at the prison. Even if he doesn't receive them himself, cards and letters let guards and prison authorities know that the world is watching and expects to hold them accountable for his treatment.  See this page to learn more about Gao, how to send him a card and suggestions for further action.

Write 4 Rights: Still Time to Wish Gao Zhisheng Happy New Year!

  

Another look back at 2012 with photos by Esteemed Reader Stevi of last year's successful 'Write 4 Rights' letter-writing marathon. We were especially pleased that this year's collection of actions included our Prisoner of Conscience, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. You can still take action on behalf of Gao and the other worthy cases-- info is here.

Interestingly, according to Radio Free Asia, it looks like Chinese activist and Sakharov Prize winner Hu Jia, who lives in Beijing, launched his own 'Write 4 Rights' style-campaign,

"Christmas is nearly here, and we should send a card to our brother who is imprisoned far away in the desert," Hu wrote, in a Tweet that was widely retweeted among the online activist community. 

"Even if Gao never gets to see them, the prison guards will, and that will increase their respect for lawyer Gao," he wrote. 

"This could lead to an improvement in his prison conditions," Hu said. "I have experienced this sort of thing myself." 

"I was jailed between 2008 and 2011, and people sent me cards at Chinese New Year and on my birthday, including cards drawn by my kid," he said. "They all expressed real feeling, and ... for a while, the electrified fences all melted away."

I am so impressed that Hu Jia is taking this action-- I would think at no small personal risk. All the more reason for those of us who can do this simple thing with no thought of retaliation, should get writing. There's still plenty of time to send Gao a greeting for the Chinese New Year.

Just a reminder that additional pictures of Rights Readers and Amnesty International-Pasadena activities past and present can be found here.

Podcast Pick: Ugandan LGBT Rights and Amnesty's Suzanne Nossel on Kojo Nnamdi Show

Kojo Nnamdi hosted an interesting discussion a couple days ago-- the first segment with Ugandan LGBT activist Julius Kaggwa talking about a bill in front of the Ugandan Parliament that would entrench discrimination and hatred against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. You can take action to oppose the bill here. Learn more about Amnesty International's campaign to decriminalize homosexuality here.

The second segment was an interview with Amnesty International USA Executive Director Suzanne Nossel which covered a range of topics, from the excitement of being able to host an event with youth activists during Burmese Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's recent visit to the treatment of accused Wikileaks conspirator Bradley Manning. Plus Pussy Riot, Guantanmo, Syria and more. (For the next few days you should be able to find the podcast for download from iTunes otherwise you will need to visit the website for audio or transcripts.)

Write for Rights Global Marathon 2012

Once again the Pasadena chapter of Amnesty International is gearing up for the global human rights letter-writing marathon-- Write for Rights. Every year activists around the world gather at this time to send notes of encouragement to human rights defenders and letters to governments requesting action on their behalf. Of course, our Loyal Readers write letters every month, but this is a special opportunity to work in solidarity with the organization's membership around the world in conjunction with International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10). Please join us!

Group 22 Write-A-Thon
Saturday, December 8, 2012 9AM - 3PM
Zephyr Coffee House and Art Gallery
2419 East Colorado Blvd
Pasadena CA 91107 (map)

Even if you can't make it, you can still pledge to write letters and participate online. We are especially pleased that our adopted prisoner of conscience, Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is among the featured cases this year. In the video above, Gao's wife expresses her frustration at not being able to communicate with her husband. Even if you can't understand Chinese or the German subtitles, you can feel her emotion. (If I can find a version of the video above with English subtitles I will revise this post). The other cases are also very compelling, including a Bahraini activist jailed for a tweet, Missouri death row inmate Reggie Clemons, people of the Niger Delta affected by oil spills, and the jailed Russian musicians known as Pussy Riot. Read about them here.

Gangnam Style for Gao Zhisheng!

British sculptor Anish Kapoor, with the help of PEN, Amnesty International, and a worldwide network of artists, museums and galleries, takes up where Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei left off with the video above- "Gangnam Style for Freedom." Apart from the video being loads of fun as a celebration of free (and silly) expression, the end card signals the send up's serious side with a sadly long list of prisoners around the world who have been denied the right to express themselves. Not only is the Pasadena chapter of Amnesty International's adopted prisoner of conscience Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng included in the list, awareness of Gao's plight is the focus of Amnesty-UK's page for the video. You can also learn more about Gao and take action on his behalf here. In addition, please explore PEN's Day to End Impunity website which will feature 23 cases in 23 days of bloggers, cartoonists, poets, journalists and more who have been threatened for expressing their views beginning tomorrow.

Our September Book: The Devil and Mr. Casement by Jordan Goodman

This month, we are reading The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness by Jordan Goodman. Roger Casement is a fascinating historical figure who we have encountered before (in Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost and Peter Robb's A Death in Brazil) who is also the subject of Mario Vargas Llhosa's most recent novel, The Dream of the Celt. It's a wonder there hasn't been a biopic starring, say, Daniel Day-Lewis about him, though there is really too much drama for just one film, just as there is too much to cover in one book. Although this book concentrates on Casement's investigations of the exploitation of indigenous peoples by rubber barons in the Amazon, there are a couple of enjoyable ways to get a thumbnail summary of his entire life. One is to listen to the ballad below, but if you have a little more time you can listen to the radio drama The Dreaming of Roger Casement (download via iTunes) from RTE (Radio Ireland).



I wish I could provide a little more background on Jordan Goodman or an interview about his book but I have hit a dead end on that front. There are still a few resources on the internet to supplement our reading, however. You can actually page through Walter Hardenburg's 1913 report "The Putumayo, the devil's paradise; travels in the Peruvian Amazon region and an account of the atrocities committed upon the Indians therein."  Here's a very brief film clip of Casement and a newsreel about his state funeral in Ireland almost fifty years after his death.  RTE also has a program in which a panel speculates "What if Roger Casement had not kept a diary?" (download via iTunes). An Independent 2011 news story of interest, "The Mystery of the Missing Amazonian Rubber Slaves" traces the fates of Omarino and Ricudo, the two Indians Casement brought back to England,

"We are sent far, far into the forest to get rubber, and if we do not get it, or if we do not get it quickly enough, we are shot," Omarino told the Daily News, a popular national newspaper founded and edited by Charles Dickens. "London is very wonderful, but the great river and the forest, where the birds fly, is more beautiful. One day we shall go back."
The men did make it back to South America in the end, but the last known record of their whereabouts shows them separated from their homes by thousands of miles of thick rainforest.

I tend to think of the movement for corporate responsibility in human rights as a relatively new development so this book was very instructive in showing that human rights activists have been seeking justice, not just from governments, but from businesses for more than a hundred years. Unfortunately, the descendants of the Putamayo Indians are still facing environmental threats brought on by corporate exploitation of their resources. This Survival International article compares the Roger Casement story to the current illegal trade in mahogany, which we read about in Ted Conover's The Routes of Man. Jordan Goodman notes the exploitation of the Putumayo by the oil and gas industry.  You can learn more about the current struggle by watching the documentary, Crude  or check out Amnesty International's corporate accountability program, their specific work on Chevron in Ecuador, a success story for indigenous rights in Peru, and an action you can take here.

Negotiating to a Strong Conclusion

(source)
click to enlarge

Two back-to-back headlines popped up in my RSS feed recently and gave me a chuckle:

The Millions : 47 New Ways to Bid Arms Goodbye
Historic Arms Trade Treaty in the Balance

So the first is actually about the release of a new edition of Ernest Hemingway's classic novel of love and war in World War I, A Farewell to Arms, which includes 47 alternative endings. And the second is from Amnesty International and concerns world leaders now meeting in New York to negotiate the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty which will prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of tyrants and child soldiers,

But if the $60 billion arms trade industry has its way, the Treaty will be watered down and ineffective.  Detractors, like the NRA, are drawing false connection between the arms trade treaty and the 2nd Amendment to protect the lucrative weapons industry have even taken to the Internet spreading misinformation to stop the treaty.  Don't let powerful lobbyists stop the US from supporting a strong Arms Trade Treaty.  

After you've taken action towards a favorable conclusion to the treaty  negotiations, if you're still curious about those other endings there is more here. I think Hemingway negotiated the right ending to his novel. It's going to take a lot of pressure from all of us to get a strong agreement that will stop the arming of human rights abusers.

Honest Conversation-- and Action-- on Immigration

In my last post, I announced our pick for October, Hector Tobar's The Barbarian Nurseries. Normally, I wouldn't start blogging about the author until closer to our 'due date,' but I thought I had to share this timely interview with the author. Tobar, in addition to his two novels that have caught our attention, has written a nonfiction book on immigration (Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States) and writes a column for the Los Angeles Times. After President Obama's announcement regarding relaxing enforcement of immigration rules for undocumented young people, the so-called mini-DREAM, the Times wanted to get his reaction (see above). Plus he has produced a column about the effects of the executive order for one young woman,

A shadow has been lifted — not from the life of Ana Venegas, but from American discourse. Like thousands of others, Ana is here, she's American, and she always has been. Now, perhaps, an honest conversation about immigration can begin.

(The video also gives you a little preview of what to expect from The Barbarian Nurseries.)

Keep the honest conversation going. Join Amnesty International in calling for passage of the full Dream Act here. 

Free Dhondup Wangchen

 I just had to share this beautiful animation from Amnesty International - Portugal in support of Tibetan filmaker Dhondup Wangchen,

Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen is serving a six-year prison sentence in China for "subversion of state power" -- simply because he dared to speak out about Tibetan human rights through his filmmaking. Demand his release now!

China has detained hundreds of Tibetans for peacefully exercising their human rights or for taking part in protests since 2008. Recently, Tibetan activists have set themselves on fire in protest of restrictions on basic freedoms and punitive security measures. The Chinese government has responded to the protests with mass arrests, imprisonment, and possible killings by security forces.

Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B and has not received the medical treatment he needs. It has been difficult to obtain reliable information about his condition.

Please call on the Chinese authorities to release Dhondup Wangchen immediately and unconditionally.

You can watch Dhondup Wangchen's film, Leaving Fear Behind here. Thematically, it's an excellent fit with the book we are reading this month, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World by Wade Davis, about language and cultural preservation. You can take action on this case here.

New Developments in Gao Zhisheng Case

Amnesty International has issued a press release deploring the latest developments in the case of 'disappeared' and now it seems, imprisoned, Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng,

Following Chinese state media reports that Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng violated probation and will be sent back to prison, Catherine Baber, Asia-Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International issued the following statement: 

"This is truly shocking news. We have not heard from Gao Zhisheng in 20 months - his family has not known if he is dead or alive and now the authorities send out a cryptic announcement that his so-called probation has been revoked. 

"There is nothing lawful about the way the authorities have handled Gao Zhisheng's case. The authorities have tortured Gao Zhisheng, subjected him to 20 months enforced disappearance, held him captive and separated him from his family, causing unbelievable stress to his loved ones. This inhumane treatment must stop. He has suffered enough. His family has suffered enough. He must be freed. 

"The authorities’ belated attempt to cast a veneer of legality over their treatment of Gao Zhisheng is truly shameful. Through a combination of illegal house arrest followed by enforced disappearance, Gao Zhisheng has already been captive for nearly double his original 'suspended' sentence. 

"The international community, diplomats, politicians and others have made Gao Zhisheng a high priority case in meetings with Chinese officials. But this has not been enough. We urge the international community to continue to press the Chinese government for Gao's release. The international community must not let up in their condemnation of this travesty of justice."

The U.S. Department of State also expressed concern regarding this news at it's Friday press briefing.  The Washington Post reported that Gao's brother suggested that the news raised more questions about where he has been and where they are sending him, while his wife, Geng He's reaction was relief that he was alive. Unfortunately, with so little information available, it's difficult to completely rule out his death and we must continue to press for more details about his whereabouts and health condition and demand his immediate release. Take action online now.

Writing and Reading for Human Rights!

Today is International Human Rights Day, the day the Nobel Prizes are awarded and the day Amnesty International (1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient) urges people around the world to write letters on behalf of victims of human rights abuses around the world. Amnesty International is also celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year and the video above gives a capsule history. The highlight for our Loyal Readers will be the cameo of Kim Song-Man, the South Korean prisoner of conscience testifying to the importance of these letter-writing campaigns for those languishing in 'forgotten' prisons. We read about the many faceted campaign on the part of Amnesty activists in Normal, Illinois to free him in Enduring the Darkness : A Story of Conscience, Hope, and Triumph : Letters from Kim Song-Man, an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience. To learn more about Amnesty's history, explore AIUSA's Amnesty at 50 section or these articles from the Guardian.  I especially want to recommend England's Children's Book Laureate Michael Morpurgo's piece, where he imagines how literature could make Amnesty's letter-writing campaigns obsolete and which is as good a justification for Rights Readers existence as any,

It is through literature, not simply literacy, that we learn to understand and empathise. As readers, we learn about the lives of others, other places and cultures, other ways of seeing the world. We find out about the past, understand better how it made our today and how our today makes our tomorrow. We learn we are not alone in our feelings, that joy and pain are universal, that humanity is to be celebrated for its diversity but is ultimately one humanity. Through literature, we can find our place in the world, feel we belong and discover our sense of responsibility. 

Amnesty understands this very well and it seeks out, encourages and endorses literature that it believes can help children develop this great skill of empathy, a skill that is vital for tolerance to grow, hatred to diminish and human rights to flourish.

And as you can see from the cover of his latest book, Shadow, about a springer spaniel in Afghanistan, what better place to start to build empathy than with a dog? I have a special springer in my life, so I will definitely be tracking this one down.  So after you've participated in your local Write for Rights event, and checked out the global Flickr pool of others participating in the the marathon, pick up a book and Read for Rights!

Join Us for Amnesty International's Global Write-a-thon!

Each year in early December, Amnesty International activists and friends gather to write letters on behalf of human rights defenders around the world as a way to commemorate International Human Rights Day (December 10). Cases include Jalila al-Salman & Mahdi Abu Dheeb, teachers detained for supporting pro-reform efforts in Bahrain,

Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi ‘Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb, former vice-president and president of the Bahrain Teachers' Association, were detained in March after their association reportedly supported a teachers' strike amid widescale pro-reform protests in Bahrain. Jalila (photo left) was reportedly held in solitary confinement and subjected to beatings for several days. She was released on bail in August, but Mahdi Abu Dheeb remains detained. Jalila al-Salman and Mahdi Abu Dheeb were sentenced by a military court in September 2011 to prison terms of 3 years and 10 years, respectively. They had been charged with a variety of offenses, including "inciting hatred towards the regime," "calling to overthrow and change the regime by force," "calling on parents not to send their children to school," and "calling on teachers to stop working and participate in strikes and demonstrations." Amnesty International believes they may have been arrested solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and association.

According to local human rights organizations, many teachers and members of the BTA were detained, harassed and tortured or otherwise ill-treated in detention for their participation in protests earlier this year. At least 500 people have been detained in Bahrain since pro-reform protests began in February, and four have died in custody on suspicious circumstances. More than 2,500 people have been dismissed or suspended from work. 

If you ever loved a teacher, this is the action for you! The Pasadena chapter of Amnesty will hold its Write-a-thon on Saturday, Dec. 10, any time between 9 AM - 4 PM at Zephyr Café, 2419 E. Colorado Blvd in Pasadena (626-793-7330). Please join us to send cards to victims of human-rights abuses like the Bahraini teachers, but also to engage in friendly conversation and enjoy the delicious food at Zephyr Café.  If you don't live in the area or can't make it, check the AIUSA website to find an event near you or to download letter-writing instructions to use on your own.

Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Today is the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, an annual, international day intended to recognize and support writers who resist repression of the right to freedom of expression, sponsored by PEN. Because we are reading Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen this month, and Appiah is the current President of PEN USA, I wanted to be sure to not let the day pass by unacknowledged.  Here he is talking about PEN's work on behalf of imprisoned Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo:


At the PEN website, be sure to check out the suggested actions on behalf of writers in Ethiopia, China, Mexico, Bahrain and Turkey. Write a letter today or print them out and bring them to Amnesty International's Global Write-a-thon in December.

You can take action for Liu Xiaobo here. Imprisonment won't keep him silent though. The Guardian reports on the first collection of his work in English, No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems, coming out in January.

The Slideshow is Back!

At long last I have fixed the Group 22 slideshow feature in the sidebar and have filled it with mostly "vintage" examples of our activist exploits over the years. Because these photos were scanned, the resolution is a little fuzzy, but they are still fun. I hope to add more recent pictures soon. If you are present or former member of our Pasadena chapter and have photos to add, let me know!

I'm highlighting a few pics from a China campaign from around 1993 in which we created a "Democracy Wall" collage of actions, quotes, pictures and graphics which was posted for the benefit of the Caltech community. Perhaps this will serve as inspiration for our current work on the 'disappeared' Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng. Please take action for Gao here!

Take Action on the Death Penalty Today!

It's not too late to take action for Kevin Cooper! Kevin Cooper, who has been on death row in California for 25 years, is asking outgoing governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute his death sentence before leaving office on January 2, 2011. Kevin Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence of the four murders for which he was sentenced to death. Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt. Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to grant clemency for Kevin Cooper.  Read Nick Kristof's recent NYT column, "Framed for Murder?", for more on the case.  More information about this case at the Free Kevin Cooper website.


On the book front, listen to this interview with David Garland, author Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition, who discusses why capital punishment continues in the United States despite the abolition of the death penalty elsewhere in the Western world. The book has drawn much attention based on former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' review in the New York Review of Books.





Rights Readers author and California death row inmate Jarvis Jay Masters (Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row) has a hearing coming up early in January. Check The Campaign to Free Jarvis Jay Masters or Facebook for updates. His latest book, That Bird Has My Wings is now out in paper, so have a look there for more of his story.

The Empty Chair

This Human Rights Day we pause to honor Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo by acknowledging the empty chair at the Nobel ceremonies. Amnesty International urges you to take action:

Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo was charged with "inciting subversion of state power" and given an 11-year prison sentence on December 25, 2009 simply for co-authoring a proposal for political and legal reform in China. On October 7, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court upheld Liu Xiaobo's prison sentence. Urge Chinese authorities to release Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.

And we urge you to slip in a reference to Group 22 Pasadena's Chinese prisoner of conscience case Gao Zhisheng too. Check out the Globe and Mail's profiles of a courageous "Gang of 10" dissidents to watch, including Gao. To learn more about Liu Xiaobo, visit PEN's resource page.  You might also want to check out PEN President Kwame Anthony Appiah's piece on Liu in Foreign Policy: China's Burden of Shame which also mentions Gao. The NYT offers a Liu poem today.

Rights Readers authors have commented on Liu Xiaobo's plight and it's implications for the future of Chinese democracy.  Here's Orville Schell (Mandate Of Heaven) on PBS Newshour.  And Ma Jian (The Noodle Maker) writes in the Scotsman,

Though now better off than they have ever been in material terms, the Chinese people are denied any real opportunity to retain and refine their own dignity beyond the quest for wealth and luxury goods.   Liu's prize is a rebuke to the regime, because it rejects the dogma that nothing but the pursuit of economic interest matters.

We wouldn't want to overlook the Nobel Literature Laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa.  Many years we enjoyed reading Death in the Andes.  Rights Readers author Daniel Alarcon (Lost City Radio) reacts to the news of his award on WNYC and offers up a bit of fan worship in the Paris Review.  Vargas-Llosa's Nobel speech is well worth the read for this thoughts on reading, exile, and human rights, not missing the chance to acknowledge the empty chair himself,

...a dictatorship represents absolute evil for a country, a source of brutality and corruption and profound wounds that take a long time to close, poison the nation’s future, and create pernicious habits and practices that endure for generations and delay democratic reconstruction. This is why dictatorships must be fought without hesitation, with all the means at our disposal, including economic sanctions. It is regrettable that democratic governments, instead of setting an example by making common cause with those, like the Damas de Blanco in Cuba, the Venezuelan opposition, or Aung San Suu Kyi and Liu Xiaobo, who courageously confront the dictatorships they endure, often show themselves complaisant not with them but with their tormenters. Those valiant people, struggling for their freedom, are also struggling for ours.

Write for Rights 2010 Global Writeathon

At the recent Amnesty International USA Western Regional conference, Group 22 Pasadena was thrilled to receive the "Local Group of the Year" award. Behold Loyal Readers and coordinators Lucas Kamp and Kathy Hansen accepting the award from Western Region Field Organizer  Kalaya'an Mendoza. The group followed this up with a bit of publicity in the Pasadena Weekly.  And we are not resting on our laurels by any means!  Next up is the annual Write for Rights Global Writeathon--your chance to send greetings to human rights defenders around the world who need a word of encouragement and to write a few letters to their governments urging them to take a stand for human rights. The Group 22 event will be at Cafe Culture (1359 N. Altadena Drive, Pasadena) on December 11. Drop by anytime between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you can't make that, additional events are being held around the country in conjunction with International Human Rights Day (December 10). Check the Amnesty International USA Write for Rights site for a writeathon near you or find materials to do your writing from your own home.  For a bit of inspiration, here is Bu Dongwei's testimony about the power of your letters. Group 22 followed Bu's case closely and recently welcomed him to a monthly meeting. 

Cut This!

Courtesy of the ACLU of Northern California, timeout for a little PSA aimed at our California readership (though the argument is really applicable in all death penalty states) regarding maintaining the death penalty in a time of budget crisis. You can take action at the ACLU's site:

Cut This: The Death Penalty from aclunc on Vimeo.

Bonus inspirational video from Amnesty-France:

ProSorata

Frank Huyler, author of this month's selection, Right of Thirst, is donating some of the proceeds from his book to an NGO that provides health care to women and children in Bolivia.  I'll give him a chance to tell you about it:





Learn more about ProSorata at their website.  And while you are at it you can check out Amnesty International's campaign for maternal health here.  Don't forget to take action!

Alaska Action

Fresh off our most recent discussion (and what a handsome group of discussants!) of Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley, Amnesty International has joined with Defenders of Wildlife to urge the Obama administration to rescind offshore drilling leases in the Chukchi Sea:

The people of Alaska's Inupiat Eskimo communities have lived in relative harmony with nature for centuries. Their hardscrabble existence is dependent on hunting and fishing. It's how they support their families.

The Inupiat way of life - and the delicate balance of nature that supports it - could soon fall victim to the same sort of offshore drilling disaster now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell Oil wants to make millions of dollars from these pristine waters. But there's a cost to that greed.

A spill in the Chukchi - even the day-to-day damage done by offshore oil drilling operations in these waters - could spell disaster for the people, polar bears, whales and other wildlife that rely on the Chukchi to survive.
The Inupiat lead a subsistence lifestyle that depends on their ability to hunt bowhead whales, walrus, seals, beluga whales, polar bears, birds, and fish, all of which depend upon the health of the Chukchi Sea ecosystem.

Shell's drilling plans could decimate Chukchi ecosystems - and the communities that rely upon them to survive.

Any day now Shell will start to send ships up to the Chukchi. Under the oil company's plan, huge 514-foot-long drill ship and an armada of support vessels and aircraft would patrol the waters of the icy Arctic Ocean -- generating industrial noise, and emitting tons of heat-trapping gases and both air water pollutants.

The catastrophic oil spill that is devastating the Louisiana Gulf Coast right now is truly a call to action. As we send this out to you the horror of the Gulf disaster is spreading and oil is decimating fisheries and dependent communities. We need to make sure that the same does not happen to the Inupiate people of Alaska.

The last time a disaster of such proportions hit Alaska was the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1989. To this day, human and wildlife communities have not fully recovered.

Thirty years later, there's still no effective, proven technology to clean up oil spills in broken sea ice conditions, such as those found in the Chukchi Sea - that means an oil spill could doom rare arctic whales, threatened polar bears and other wildlife to extinction and destroy Inupiat communities if drilling proceeds.

The Inupiat communities -- like the wildlife of the Chukchi Sea -- are unique and irreplaceable. Please take action today to protect them.