Despite overwhelming local opposition, foreign mining giant Rio Tinto is pressing forward with plans to build a gargantuan, open-pit gold and copper mine above Alaska's Bristol Bay -- threatening the world's greatest sockeye salmon runs and the very last 284 beluga whales of Cook Inlet.

Rio Tinto insists that "Good community relations are necessary for our business success."

But here's the ugly truth: This London-based company is risking environmental disaster over the objections of the people who depend on Bristol Bay for their survival.

Rio Tinto is holding their annual shareholder meeting during the week before Earth Day, so the time is right to turn up the heat and expose their broken promises. Sign the petition today and tell them not to build a mega-mine against the will of local citizens!

The waters of the North Aleutian Basin and Bristol Bay provide 40 percent of the nation's wild seafood, host the largest runs of wild sockeye salmon in the world, support centuries-old Native subsistence traditions, and offer critical habitat for some of the world's highest concentrations of whales, seals, walrus, seabirds, salmon, crab and halibut.

In 2010, the administration prohibited drilling in the North Aleutian Basin and Bristol Bay through 2017. However, the push to drill will likely continue after 2017 unless more lasting action is taken.

Right now, the administration is accepting comments on the nation's five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plans. Tell Secretary Salazar that this region is too valuable to drill, and request that Bristol Bay be protected from oil and gas development permanently.