On June 26, concerned citizens everywhere showed their opposition to dangerous offshore drilling and held hands in support of a clean energy future. Hands Across the Sand events were held at 11 a.m. local time along beaches and waterfronts in 38 countries and in all 50 U.S. states (click here for more photos). The event began the day in Auckland, New Zealand and worked its way across global time zones finishing on the North Shore of Kauai, Hawaii.

Alaska Wilderness League organized events in Portland, ME; Portsmouth, NH; Atlantic City, NJ; Durango, CO; Albuquerque, NM; and Anchorage, AK. The health of our oceans is of vital importance to Alaskan wilderness and wildlife. The Arctic Ocean is one of the most unique marine ecosystems in the world and has been essential to the survival of some of our nation’s most beloved wildlife and Alaska’s Inupiat people for thousands of years. Thankfully, President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently announced their decision to suspend Shell Oil’s plans for drilling in the Arctic Ocean this summer.

We must continue to work hard to ensure that any future development in these pristine waters is only allowed to proceed when it can be done safely. By joining together, we call on President Obama and Congress to say no to more offshore drilling and yes to a clean energy future.

Anchorage, AK
Atlantic City, NJ	Philadelphia, PA
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Portland, ME	Durango, CO
Albuquerque, NM

Grasses, Grains and Clovers (50% of mix)
Field Peas, white flowers, plus food for waterfowl and game birds (pheasant, quail, etc.).
Triticale, a common food grain that is a cross between wheat and rye. Attracts small wildlife such as chipmunks.
Oats, attractive grain plant that provides food and cover for birds and most small wildlife.
Sorghum/Sudangrass, a fast-growing food grass favored by browsing and grazing wildlife.
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense). Attractive perennial clover loved by deer, rabbits, hummingbirds and bees.
Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) Short annual clover with brilliant red flowers.Attracts hummingbirds.

Bird and Butterfly Favorites:
Cornflower Seeds are a highly favored food for many birds, particularly American Goldfinches.
Purple Coneflower, also known as Echinacea, is a favorite of Monarch and other Butterflies.
Brilliantly-colored tubular flowers, such as baby snapdragon and lupine, and also Crimson and Red Clover, are particularly effective at attracting Hummingbirds.

Full seed list

For more information: http://www.americanmeadows.com/WildflowerSeeds/SeedMixes/WildlifeHabitatMix.aspx

If Big Oil can’t stop an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by all their infrastructure and technology, how will they ever stop one at the top of the world? Please sign the letter below to President Obama to thank him for protecting America’s Arctic from dangerous new offshore drilling.

WASHINGTON—Dozens of lawmakers are asking President Barack Obama to delay Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plans to drill off the coast of Alaska this summer until the government has fully dealt with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter Thursday, Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D., N.Y.), and Rep. Jay Inslee (D., Wash.) and at least 75 other lawmakers urged a delay “until the causes of this disaster are known and the administration has subsequently put in place improved and rigorous prevention technology requirements.”

A White House spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shell spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh said in a statement that “Shell would not consider drilling in Alaska unless we could do so safely and responsibly.” She said that the company’s exploration plan has been in place for three years and reviewed extensively.

Shell wants to drill exploratory wells in the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas this summer. Shell has said that its exploratory wells will involve drilling in about 150 feet of water, not the 5,000-foot depths where oil is gushing out of a broken BP PLC pipe in the Gulf. The pipe broke after an oil-rig that BP was leasing exploded. Shell has said that the Deepwater Horizon rig, which caught fire and sank last month, was drilling an exploratory well that was technically more complex than those planned for the Arctic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), entered the debate on Thursday. She stopped short of calling for a suspension to Shell’s exploratory drilling in the Arctic. But she did say in the aftermath of the BP disaster in the Gulf, the onus is on drilling companies to demonstrate that a repeat will not occur.

“The burden is now on these companies—they made certain representations,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The oil spill in the Gulf begs the question of what are the odds of something [else] happening to harm the ecology, harm the economy and be unfair to the taxpayer.”

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service is reviewing Shell’s application for a permit to drill, a final point in the regulatory process. Shell is in talks with regulators about what safety procedures it might take in light of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

A federal appeals court earlier this month issued a ruling favorable to Shell. A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the MMS met its obligations to consider relevant factors when approving Shell’s exploration plans, handing a defeat to environmental groups who had argued that MMS had conducted an inadequate review.

On Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard official Brian Salerno told the House Transportation Committee that responding to an oil spill in the Arctic “poses some unique challenges” and that “it would be far more difficult to mount a response” on the scale of what is being conducted currently in the Gulf of Mexico. He also said that techniques being used in the Gulf of Mexico still “need to be evaluated for their effectiveness in the Arctic.”

Separately on Thursday, 14 environmental groups wrote Mr. Obama asking the president to ban offshore drilling in areas that are not currently being drilled. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the president may withdraw any unleased lands from future drilling. The group of environmentalists writing to Mr. Obama includes Environment America, the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana and Earthjustice.

On May 27, 2010, President Obama postponed Shell Oil’s exploratory drilling plans for America’s Arctic Ocean that were slated to begin this summer. The operation was to be similar to the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, but executed in a far riskier setting: the Arctic’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, in waters that sustain extraordinary wildlife populations including polar bears, walruses and ice seals, along with bowhead, beluga and gray whales, and more than 150 species of fish. Alaska Native communities have depended on this wildlife for thousands of years.

Drilling plans for the Arctic are plagued with many of the same deficiencies that were recently exposed in the Gulf of Mexico. As with the Deepwater Horizon project, Shell has not planned for a catastrophic blowout occurrence during exploration in the Beaufort or Chukchi Seas, stating “a large oil spill, such as a crude oil release from a blowout, is extremely rare and not considered a reasonably foreseeable impact.”

Moreover, Shell’s capacity to respond to a spill in the Arctic is extremely lacking – only a fraction of the equipment that has been on hand in the Gulf is available in the far-away Arctic. The environment of the Arctic is much harsher and less understood than the coast of Louisiana. Storms in the Arctic can last for days, producing up to 20 ft. seas and sustained wind speeds of 33+ knots. Meanwhile, in the Gulf, mechanical clean-up was halted amid eight-foot seas. Shell even admitted that clean-up would be impossible in harsh Arctic conditions, stating: “[w] inds above 15 knots with 30 knot gusts are strong enough to make hoists and lifts unsafe…”

Shell Oil’s Arctic drilling plans have been postponed until 2011, at least – but this is not the end of the story. The uncertainty surrounding this issue only highlights the need for the Obama administration to declare that Arctic drilling should not occur until protections are in place to prevent oil spills in the harsh conditions of America’s Arctic Ocean.

If Big Oil can’t stop a spill in the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by all its infrastructure and technology, how will it ever stop one amid the swells and sea ice of the Arctic Ocean?