Oppose Arctic Drilling
Action: Contact Congress in your state to show your opposition to Arctic Drilling and urge them to support the Cantwell-Kerry Amendment.
Why?
- The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 19 million acres comprise one of the last places on earth where an intact expanse of arctic and sub arctic lands remains protected.
- Drilling in the Arctic Refuge can’t make even a small dent in meeting America’s energy needs. U.S. Geological Survey scientists estimate that there is very likely only enough oil to supply America’s needs for six months. And oil companies admit that, even that, won’t be available for at least 10 years.
- An irreplaceable natural treasure, the Arctic Refuge is home to caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, golden eagles, snow geese and more. Millions of other birds use the Arctic Refuge to nest and as a critical staging area on their migratory journeys.
- For a thousand generations, the Gwich’in people of Northeast Alaska and Northwest Canada have depended on it and lived in harmony with it. To them, the Arctic Coastal Plain is sacred ground.
- If they really cared about energy independence they’d support efforts to increase energy conservation and to create clean, renewable sources of energy that no terrorist can sabotage and no foreign government can seize.
Note added March 16: The effort to remove the Arctic drilling provision failed by a vote of 49-51. This was a vote for Big Oil.
Note added July 27: And now the Energy Bill is up for them to give it funding – and if you don’t believe in “big oil” just take a look at that bill and think about who it really benefits. Read it, and remember who the players were to design it. Then read up on the Apollo Project for an alternative.
What nonsense.
I’ve BEEN THERE.
There is a whole lot of nothing.
Also, there have been no major spills from the Alaska pipeline in three decades of operation.
It’s not a vote for BIG OIL (what a cliche’)…it’s a vote for national sovereignty and security.
What little they could drag out of those lands after they destroyed wouldn’t make a real difference at all. Oh, they want to drill in our national parks now too. Perhaps our national heritage and protected lands seem like nothing to you, but they mean a lot to me. If nothing else, we may come to value a clean water source before too much longer.
As for whose interest it is in, do just a tad of research on Exxon, for example. Or read up and ask people who live in the areas where drilling takes place in our country today. I think you might get a different perspective once you are clear on oil seepage, ruined water, destroyed land, dead wildlife. Or maybe you don’t care about those things – it’s certainly your own decision.
I only wish that the idea of “big oil” was an effective enough meme to have become a cliche.
Right now in my AP environmental science class we’re doing a debate about arctic drilling. I just want to thank everyone who put their opposing opinions on this page, and support the environment. Envirothon for life.