Title: FW: [globalnews] Bush, US Navy Declare Global War on Whales
National Resources Defense Council
Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,
I am contacting you via email because NRDC is facing an imminent legal and
financial deadline in a case of extraordinary importance. We need your
immediate help.
Just days from now, NRDC attorneys will appear in U.S. Federal Court and
seek to stop the U.S. Navy from operating a new and extremely dangerous
sonar system that would blast hundreds of thousands of square miles of
ocean habitat with noise so intense it can maim, deafen or even kill whales
at close range.
NRDC is racing to court because the Bush administration has just given its
approval for the Navy to begin deploying this Low Frequency Active (LFA)
sonar system across 75 percent of the world's oceans. Even worse, the Navy
intends to begin operations of this frightening new technology as early as
November 1st!
We need your immediate help. Please go to
https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa2.asp right now to make an online
emergency contribution that will help us fight this critical legal battle.
Marine scientists are warning that this sonar system may threaten the very
survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering on the
brink of extinction.
As opposed to traditional "passive" sonar, which locates submarines by
listening for sound in the water, the new "active" sonar uses underwater
loudspeakers to blast the ocean with an effective noise level of 235
decibels and then waits for a response. At close range, the shock waves are
so intense they can destroy whales' eardrums, cause their lungs to
hemorrhage, and even kill. Further from the source, LFA noise still can
result in permanent hearing loss in marine mammals after a single
transmission, and cause whales to swerve from their migration paths.
The dangers are hardly theoretical. Two years ago, the mere testing of
high-intensity Navy sonar in mid-frequency range caused a mass stranding of
whales in the Bahamas. Whales from at least three different species died,
their inner ears bleeding from the explosive power of the sonar signal.
Does the Navy have the right to conduct a giant uncontrolled experiment on
our oceans and every living creature in them?
The Bush administration seems to think so. It has issued a permit that
exempts the Navy from having to obey the Marine Mammal Protection Act, in
effect giving the military a blank check to harass and injure whales and
dolphins at will.
We think that's unconscionable and illegal. But we must have your immediate
help if we are to prevail in court. We urgently need to raise significant
new funds in order to cover litigation expenses and stop the imminent
deployment of deadly, noise-producing sonar.
Again, I urge you to help by going to
https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa2.asp right now and making an online
emergency contribution.
Please join us in stopping the U.S. Navy before it unleashes this
technological menace on the world's oceans. With your help, we can make
sure that no more whales have to suffer and die from high-power sonar.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John H. Adams
President Natural Resources Defense Council
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“Inner speed, outer caution; inner caution, outer speed”
--Words of Wisdom From the Great Caduceator
