Protect ANWR from Oil Exploration

State your view to protect seabirds, polar bears and whales. Pro-drilling lobby uses higher oil prices and more jobs to make their case. Serious impacts being downplayed.

ANWR still needs people to speak up and protect it. Claims of minimal impact are misleading at best and the amount of oil and gas available is probably exaggerated.

The following is the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s own description of why ANWR was created:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values; to conserve caribou herds, polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, dall sheep, wolves, wolverines, snow geese, peregrine falcons, other migratory birds, dolly varden, and grayling; to fulfill international treaty obligations; to provide opportunities for continued subsistence uses; and to ensure necessary water quality and quantity.

Drilling is contrary to everything stated here. Contamination from previous oil exploration on the North Slope has not yet been cleared and further pollution is ongoing, with chemical such as benzene leaking into the ground and airborne pollutants including methane gas and oxides of nitrogen being released.

The pro-drilling contingency claims that only a small area of ANWR would be affected. What they don’t explain that the amount of land may be small but it would likely be spread out throughout the Refuge. Which means that a significant amount of traffic from one to another would result in a much bigger impact.

In 1989, while working with sea otters affected by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, I was first introduced to ANWR and the threat of oil exploration. It amazes and saddens me that we are still fighting this battle, especially in the face of new knowledge of the impact climate change is having on the Arctic.

Read the information from both sides then make your voice heard.