This is actually serious.

I don't think that we have ever posted something like this on here yet, but between the fact that that this blog's favorite blogging subject, Chris Johanson, sent this to me, or the fact that it said "The message below, from James Taylor, was sent to you by..." and it was sent by Chris, or— really I'm beating around the bush on the bottom line because it is so fucking stomach turningly gnarly. Please read below and consider clicking the link to send a petition. These are heavy days, and inactive silence just gets them heavier.

"The message below, from James Taylor, was sent to you by
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org


Dear Friend,

The U.S. Navy wants to put a training range for lethal
mid-frequency sonar right next to a key migratory route for
endangered right whales -- off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North
Carolina.

Click here and tell the Navy not to put its proposed sonar range
next to the right whale's migratory route:

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/whales_nc_action

I grew up in North Carolina. My father served in the Navy while
we lived there, and I have sailed up and down the Eastern
seaboard many times. Like so many people, I love the wild beauty
of the North Carolina coast, including its magnificent whales.

So I find it mind-boggling that our government would choose this
sensitive environment as the training ground for a type of sonar
that can kill whales.

The Navy's new Atlantic Undersea Warfare Training Range would
create a 500-square-mile hub of sonar activity -- assaulting
whales, dolphins and other marine life with a year-round barrage
of deafening sound.

That barrage would occur without apparent interruption -- even
during the peak, annual migration of the North Atlantic right
whale, one of the most endangered whale species on Earth.

Only about 300 of these whales are believed to exist.

Given what we know about the dangers of sonar, can we stay
silent while our military bombards the world's last right whales
with this deadly noise?

Click here to protect the world's last right whales from deadly
sonar:
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/whales_nc_action

The Navy itself has admitted that sonar can kill whales. Around
the world -- from Hawaii to the Canary Islands -- whales have
been found stranded or dying following their encounters with
naval sonar. And scientists have demonstrated that intense noise
puts right whales in additional danger of being struck and
killed by ships.

It's even happened in North Carolina! Thirty seven whales of
three different species beached themselves on the shores of the
Outer Banks following sonar exercises in 2005. Yet the Navy is
planning to build its new testing range just south of where the
mass stranding occurred.

If you and I wait for more pictures of dying whales on the
beaches of North Carolina it will be too late.

No one is asking the Navy to compromise its training or its
readiness. Certainly, I'm not. I'm from a naval family. I fully
appreciate the Navy's vital mission.

But we are asking the Navy to find a place and a time for
training that is less likely to torture and kill some of the
most magnificent creatures on Earth. Taking that simple
precaution is the sensible and moral thing to do.

Right whales should not have to die for military practice.

Please join me and the NRDC Action Fund in demanding that the
Navy consider less sensitive locations for its new sonar
training range and the deadly noise it will produce.

Click here now and tell the Navy to do the right thing:

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/whales_nc_action

I hope you'll also help us build nationwide opposition to the
Navy's proposal by forwarding this message to anyone you know
who cares about whales.

Let's not wait for whales to start dying in North Carolina.
Please speak out now.

Sincerely,

James Taylor
NRDC Action Fund"

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/whales_nc_action