Will the Grand Canyon Survive?

Last week Change.org contacted us about the Worldwide Campaign to Save the Grand Canyon. Working together with environmental editor, Jess Leber, the petition housed on Change.org was updated with the current urgency in the need of signatures to make this campaign a successful one. With Change.org’s endorsement and promotion of this campaign, the response has been overwhelming. In the last few days, over 34,000 people have spoken out with signatures and comments and demands to stop the mining of uranium in and around the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is a world treasure for which we in the United States are its caretakers and guardians. Everything must be done to protect it.

A critical development occurred during the preceding months of comments, public hearings and outcries regarding the upcoming expiration of the uranium mining moratorium which is currently protecting the Grand Canyon. In 2009, lawsuits and public outcry helped secure the moratorium for an additional 2 years. In the last couple months, there have been additional initiatives such as letter writing campaigns and public hearings held opposing the allowance of mining to resume.

There is no other place on earth that rivals the Grand Canyon area in grandeur and sheer splendor. It is the signature natural landmark of our nation and is magnificent in so many ways.

Most recently, thanks to an unprecedented and fierce citizen outcry last week, the deadline for public comment was extended an additional 30 days through May 4. This means that now is the time for the most intense, passionate and powerful outcry yet where we could ensure the Canyon stays mine-free for at least another 20 years if we can get the current ban on the table passed to shut the mining lobbyists down.

The Grand Canyon is not only a national treasure, it is an official World Heritage Site and has been one since 1979. See the link: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/75
Do not jeopardize one of the most amazing natural wonders of the world. The short term gain from mining will come at a cost of spoiling the area for centuries to come. Leave it alone. Continue the ban.

We cannot allow the corporate vultures access to the Grand Canyon. You know it will be destroyed and that just can’t be allowed to happen.

Mining lobbyists are pushing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to let the digging begin. We must continue to band together – global citizens uniting – and dig in our heals to stop the greedy from causing further unrepairable damage to one of the most incredible natural wonders of the world.

Let us be good stewards of our earth and preserve it as a safe habitat to benefit all life.

The Canyon contains outstanding biological diversity, containing five of the of the seven life zones, including Lower Sonoran, Upper Sonoran, Transition, Canadian and Hudsonian, which is the equivalent of traveling from Mexico to Canada. It is home to numerous rare, endemic (found only at Grand Canyon), and threatened/endangered plant and animal species. The park contains over 1,500 plant, 355 bird, 89 mammalian, 47 reptile, 9 amphibian, and 17 fish species.

The National Park Service already advises against “drinking and bathing” in the Little Colorado River, Kanab Creek, and other Grand Canyon waters where “excessive radionuclides” have been found. Several areas of and surrounding the Grand Canyon have already been declared by the U.S. Forest Service and other national agencies as toxic areas. Water supplies and land have been poisoned by radiation from uranium mining run-off. Human, animal and plant lives and species have been lost and continue to be endangered by the toxic contamination.

We must all ACT NOW to Save the Grand Canyon! Please join us in signing this petition to halt uranium mining in and around the Grand Canyon.