Today I join a delegation headed to London to deliver a message to the new CEOs of Anglo American and Rio Tinto and the companies’ shareholders. Our message is simple: avert environmental and economic disaster by abandoning plans for the Pebble Mine.
Pebble Mine – a gold and copper mine proposed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska – would generate an estimated ten billion tons of waste and threaten the world's greatest wild salmon runs, which are the lynchpin of a spectacular ecosystem and the generator of 14,000 jobs and $480 million in annual revenue.
That’s why Pebble Mine faces overwhelming local opposition:
- 85% of commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay oppose Pebble Mine, including 80% who strongly oppose it.
- 81% of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation's native shareholders oppose Pebble Mine.
- 80% of Bristol Bay residents oppose Pebble Mine.
- 68% of Alaskans oppose Pebble Mine, including 55% who strongly oppose it.
In support of this relentless local opposition, I will deliver over 200,000 petitions of protest from NRDC members and activists at the Anglo American and Rio Tinto annual shareholder meetings later this week in London. This is in addition to the over 1 million petitions of protest generated to date against Pebble Mine – over 400,000 delivered to the companies at their annual shareholder meetings last year in London.
Pebble Mine is a project that faces major regulatory, legal, and operational risks -- as well as growing worldwide opposition. Over the long-term, it is an environmental, financial and public relations disaster in the making.
NRDC is committed to do all that it can, for as long as it takes, to ensure that the communities of Bristol Bay are heard and the Pebble Mine is stopped, and we join in taking their message to London this week.
And the message is clear: It’s time to stop the Pebble Mine. Make your voice heard.
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