World
U.S. Declares That SUVs More Important To Americans Than Polar Bears
By D.L. McCracken
Mar 17, 2005, 11:05

After decades of pressure from the oil industry to set up a major drilling operation in Alaska and along with the ongoing urgings of President Bush, the US Senate on Wednesday voted to open oil drilling in Alaska's fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Opponents to the drilling however are raising the alarm bells stating that any large-scale industrial operations will cause irreparable damage to the fragile and unique flora and fauna in that region and beyond.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was established to protect the Arctic coastal plain which is home to a critical ecosystem and is considered extremely fragile. Situated in northeast Alaska the protected coastal plain spans a 25-mile tundra and wetland area and is home to 200 wildlife species which include the already threatened polar bear as well as musk oxen, caribou, wolves, wolverines and moose. The area is also home to a variety of migratory birds including tundra swans, snowy owls and eider ducks.

Conservationists consider the coastal plains of Alaska to be the "biological heart" of the National Wildlife Refuge and it is this heart which has been targeted by the U.S. president, the senate and the oil companies. Not only are conservationists concerned about the rape of this sanctuary, they have stated that to allow drilling in the protected Alaskan plains will be precedent setting for future drilling operations in other fragile areas of the United States.

According to the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), oil development in the coastal plains of Alaska will permanently harm and/or threaten:

- Beaufort Sea polar bears who roam over 800 miles of the coastal region in search of seals and other food sources. Females give birth in the same area each autumn. Female polar bears who are pregnant, have given birth or are nursing their young are extremely sensitive to any industrial activity;

- Over 135 bird species who breed and nest in an annual migratory stopover. The bird population includes snow geese, tundra swans, red-throated loons, snowy owls, eider ducks and a variety of shorebirds. All bird species are extremely sensitive to any human interference.

- Porcupine caribou. Every year 123,000 caribou migrate to the Alaskan coastal plains from Canada where the females give birth in the spring. Pregnant and nursing female caribou graze on an abundance of flora and because of a low number of caribou predators, newborn caribous enjoy a better survival rate.

- A small yet thriving muskoxen population. This species was entirely eradicated in the 19th century by hunters but were successfully reintroduced and all now inhabit the refuge's coastal plains.

- 7,000 Gwich'en Indians currently live in the refuge and they depend on the caribou for their survival. The Gwich'en are the world's northernmost Indians and consider the area sacred ground. Development would force the Gwich'en from their sacred ground on which they have lived for 15,000 years by devastating the caribou. The Gwich'en are unified in their opposition to drilling. (source: www.innogize.com/papers/anwr.html).

The National Academy of Sciences concluded it is unlikely that the most disturbed habitat will ever be restored and the damage to more than 9,000 acres by oilfield roads and gravel pads is likely to remain for centuries, according to a report on the NRDC website.

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