Wallace Stegner wrote that you do not have to travel to a wilderness to know that it is worth saving -- simply knowing such a wild sanctuary exists is enough to create a "geography of hope." The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an icon of that hope. We know even without going to the refuge that more than 130,000 caribou thunder across its rushing rivers and tend to their young in its greening tundra. Polar bears amble along its shoreline and wolves trot through its tangled grasses. Natural diversity and grandeur at this scale is something most of us will never see. By preserving it, we preserve the hope that our children will know that wildness and conservation still exist in our land.

For the Bush administration, the Arctic Refuge represents another kind of icon: the next frontier to be developed. The administration is poised to let oil and gas companies stake their claim to the refuge. Officials say this will help end our dependence on foreign oil. In reality, there is less than a year's supply of oil in the refuge, which would lower gas prices at the pump a mere two cents per gallon 20 years from now. The administration's real reason to open the Arctic Refuge is more cynical: if it can violate this sanctuary, then it can let Big Oil invade our other cherished wild places as well. At this moment, the Bush administration has given Shell Oil a pass to begin exploratory drilling just offshore of the refuge in the Beaufort Sea -- putting polar bears, whales and millions of birds at risk. NRDC has filed a lawsuit to stop this year's exploratory drilling, but even if we win we will need Congress to act to provide permanent protection.

Americans do not have to choose between wilderness and energy security. Improving fuel efficiency in cars would do far more to end our oil dependence than drilling in the Arctic Refuge and its sensitive offshore waters.

Tell Congress to pass legislation that protects the Arctic Refuge and its offshore waters from destructive oil and gas drilling.

Photo credits: Porcupine caribou herd crossing Tamayariak River, © Mark Kelley, Alaska Stock. Polar bear and cub standing in sunshine, © Steven Kazlowski, Alaska Stock.