Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

            The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been a foundation of debate for many years. The main characters are played by the environmentalists who find to preserve this portion of wilderness; the state of Alaska, which funds a great portion of its doings with dividends from oil production; Alaska people, who got a dividend payment from oil returns; oil companies that desire to bore in the refuge; and associates of Congress who see the oil reserves in the region as vital economic and political matters.

            In 1960, 3.6M ha (8.9M acres) were set aside as the Arctic National Wildlife Range. Passage of the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980 developed the series to 8M ha (19.8M acres) and set up 3.5M ha (8.6M acres) as wilderness. The act renamed the area the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There are international allusions to this act. The refuge margins Canada’s Northern Yukon National Park. A lot of animals, specifically members of the Porcupine caribou herd, travel across the border on a regular annually migration. The United States is obliged by treaty to secure these relocation courses.

            The act needs specific approval from Congress before boring for oil or other expansion activities can take place on the coastal plain in the refuge. The coastal plain has the largest concentration of wildlife, is the calving ground for the Porcupine caribou, and has the greatest prospective for oil manufacture. In each case, the probable approval caused an impact of three aspects:  environmental security, economic improvement, and political advantage. Moreover, large differences of outlook exist within each of the struggling interest groups. A few of Alaskan residents encourage boring; other contests it. The Inupiat Eskimos who resides along the North Alaskan coast generally are in favor of boring in ANWR. The Inupiat believe oil returns and land-rental costs from oil companies will lift their living standards. The other Native American tribes in the area, the Gwich’in, who reside on the Southern border of the refuge, oppose the drilling in the refuge. They disagree that the drilling will crash the caribou relocation through the area every fall and hence would affect their capability to supply food for their families. Members of the Congress are similarly divided. Even members of the Department of the Interior have presented opposing testimony about the risks and advantages of drilling for oil in the refuge (Enger and Smith).

            Biologists guard the birthrate of the Porcupine caribou may decrease by 40 percent if drilling is permitted. They also think seismic searching could bother residing adult polar pears and cause them to desert their cubs. Even minute spills would be dangerous for seals and other marine mammals found along the coastline due to oil and chemical spillage that tend to gather within their air openings. Some native residents depend on these marine animals for food. The liver of seals is specifically valued, but the liver is an organ where pollutants hoard. And commotions of any period could have effects on populations of snow geese, trumpeter swans, arctic terns, and the other migratory birds that stay in the refuge to feed and breed (Collin).

Summary and Conclusion

            Oil from Prudhoe Bay will in time run out. Because of this reason, many Alaskans want the jobs and funds that drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could bring. Residents who refuse to agree with the said activity argue that if oil is established and drilled for in the refuge, it will probably run out someday as well. No one knows how much oil is under the refuge – there could be sufficient for a couple of years, or just a few months. Eventually, Alaskan residents will have to find other ways to make money.

            The US government organizes the Arctic National Refuge and other wilderness locales in the state. Alaskan and other US people can let the government know how they feel about the drilling for oil in Alaska. Together, the people will settle on if the hazards to the environment are worth the oil, jobs, and money that come from the drilling in the Last Frontier (Johnston).

 Works Cited:

Collin, Robert Wiliam. The Environmental Protection Agency: Cleaning up America’s Act. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005.

Enger, Eldon D., and Bradley Smith. Environmental Science: A Study of Interrelationships. 9th ed. Japan: Tsinghua University Press, 2004.

Johnston, Joyce. Alaska. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications, 2001.