I don't trust the government to do any thing with drilling for oil in ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_National_Wildlife_Refuge Here are my reasons -
Those responsible ...
1. could be more competent and should hire those to work for them who have ethics and respect for everyone
2. have shown a history of continuous spills, no planning, can not be trusted to get the oil out of Alaska safely
3. allowed a degenerate anti-culture to invade Alaska and now women fear walking around alone
4. need to consider other things than short term profit motives
5. could consider ANWR for an emergency - but it is not a long term solution - taking the oil means accepting a stop gap solution and having NOTHING left. Is this that last emergency?
Shipping oil unsafely by the goverment in league with private industry killed off Prince William Sound as a result of the March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdex Oil Spill. In the wake of 10.8 million U.S.gallons of oil Prince William Sound has not recovered, the land and water have not been able to clean and restore themselves to what they were prior to the spill. ("Almost 15 years after the spill, a team of scientists at the University of North Carolina found that the effects are lasting far longer than expected. The team estimates some shoreline habitats may take up to 30 years to recover. Exerpts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill )
I loved Prince William Sound - I photographed it - my heart literarly leaped with joy to see the birds and other wildlife in the pristine blue water with white waves lapping on the beaches when I was a federal wildlife photographer there.
The Native population and other people still can not make a living from that region. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill In 1991, following the collapse of the local marine population (particularly clams, herring, and seals) the Chugach Native American group went bankrupt. According to several studies funded by the state of Alaska, the spill had both short- and long term economic effects. These included the loss of recreational sports fisheries, reduced tourism, and an estimate of what economists call "existence value," which is the value to the public of a pristine Prince William Sound.)
I was devastated because in 1979 I photographed the so called "recovery vessels" along the coast - yellow painted metal submersibles with no engine, that were not waterproof and fitted with no equipment whatsoever. What were these things - a joke I thought?
When I immediately showed government representatives photos of these yellow submarines - including the then head of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, he said they all knew about the condition of their fleet of oil spill recovery vessels: useless.
It was in fact why I left Alaska - clearly no one in the government cares enough to protect Alaska from the short term thinking and money grubbers. They did not even have an emergency plan for the inevitable spills. Drilling in a wildlife range - why not just go drill in the Outside / lower 49 state wildlife ranges if the US government likes that idea so much - first let's drill in the parks - how about if they start with Yosemite National Park?
You may not know that I worked on the Alaska pipeline in 1976. There are areas which are so easy to damage you would not believe it. If you just step on some sections of ground it turns into a soggy pond within weeks. In a year nothing can go by that area. Along the pipeline road all the animals had died out in a 4 mile radius. This is for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
How do I know? My close friend was the chief biologist stationed at Coldfoot at Camp 4 on the pipeline. She was threatened by her pipeline bosses that if she accurately documented the real effects on the environment - they'd just replace her with someone who would lie for them. I suggested she provide the real statistics under the table to the state and federal biologists so that they would at least know the truth even if it was not the official "truth".
The jackasses who came from the lower US states to build the pipeline robbed, raped, and murdered friends of mine in Fairbanks. We found one of our friends buried in a car trunk in a gravel pit. They had to have help to do that. It was like a war zone. I worked with those SOBs - it took me many years to recover - maybe this blog shows that.
The day I arrived in Coldfoot (a camp of between 400- 800 men) - there was lots of violence - some drunk 798'er (pipeline worker, welding union) attacked an old woman in her house with a huge rock - nearly killed her in a rape attempt. What is amazing is that she managed to escape although her head was broken and bleeding. How do I know? Because the only sheriff in hundreds of miles was a friend of mine - he was the one they sent for to find and arrest the asshole who did that. She had to be hospitalized - I think she was in her 60's. I was lucky because I knew how to stay safe but not everyone was so lucky.
For me I could not stand to watch the Alaska I knew as a child become the place it is now, and a place I expect will become worse. When I last visited Anchorage my friends were totally freaked out that I walked around at different times of the day and night in public. Why? Because rape is epidemic there. How do I know for sure besides the statistics? My best friend was an assistant district attorney in Anchorage.
The last thing I would ever do is put any trust into a government that has lead us by lying into an expensive war with one excuse after another and uses deceit and threats to cover up the facts about the effects.
We need to work to find alternative sources of energy - not use up our backup emergency sources in the face of their inability to plan or control the effects of removing the oil. Some areas are worth keeping just as they are because they are beautiful. We can still afford beauty can't we?
Or do we just continue to foster and support a culture of taking what we want when ever we want it - rape, lies, war.
Not me, not now, not with what I have myself seen and know - this is not from some third party source - it's from a 4th generation Alaskan.
Think of this as the last of your own wildlife reserves, and some of the last oil reserves in the country - would you use the very last of it, especially if you understood the effects it would have?
Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill for more information about the continuing problems from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - including the "WikiScanner discovered changes made from within Exxon Mobil altering this article's descriptions of the oil spill and down playing its severity."
And the State of Alaska source: http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/
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