Submitted by Tim and Mary Gallagher. Reprinted from the Wild Phlox newsletter.
In the waning days of his administration, on December 6, 1960, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower designated 9 million acres in northeast Alaska as the Arctic National Wildlife Range.
Twenty years later, on November 12, 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed in the U.S. Congress and Democratic President Jimmy Carter signed it into law on December 2 in the last days of his administration. This doubled the size of the Arctic Range and renamed it the Arctic Refuge.
The 1970’s were a time of oil embargoes and long lines at gas stations, clearly still fresh in many legislator’s minds. Within the 1980 legislation 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain was portioned out for further study. This area called Section 1002 was to be studied for its wildlife and wilderness value but also oil and gas potential.
Decades have passed, and another administration is coming to an end. During this time, we have improved efficiency in vehicles and developed electric cars and trucks. We understand how important and fragile the coastal plain is to migrating nesting birds from all over the world. We know the critical nutrition it provides for the Porcupine Caribou herd, an animal essential to the survival of the indigenous Gwich’in people of Alaska and Canada. Most importantly we now understand the consequences of fossil fuel extraction and impacts to climate change. Over two-thirds of the American people oppose drilling in this unique wilderness.
Yet, this outgoing Administration just announced a “call for nominations” in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, asking oil companies to identify preferred areas on the Arctic Refuge’s ecologically sensitive coastal plain to lease for oil drilling. The current Interior Department has set in motion the process for approving a massive new seismic testing program for nearly a half million acres of the coastal plain. Their proposal would involve hundreds of miles of “roads”, resulting from 90,000-pound seismic vehicles traveling with bulldozer convoys. These conveys will carry supplies for up to 180 workers, threatening denning polar bears.
With the continued volatility in oil markets and major U.S. and international banks unwilling to invest in Arctic oil, the economic argument no longer is valid. This combined with significant environmental and social impacts should require an environmental review.
What can you do to celebrate the 60th Anniversary?
- Support organizations like National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and Alaska Wilderness League that have filed lawsuits against the current administration drilling in the Refuge or efforts to begin seismic testing.
- Call or email the oil companies and let them know you do not want them to drill in the Refuge. Many major corporations such as British Petroleum have started to exit the Arctic.
- Call or email car companies and ask for better fuel efficiency and electric cars that can go further on one charge.
- Call or Email your Congressional Representatives and let them know how you feel about protecting the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge and the Trump Administration’s efforts to fast-forward drilling.
- Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, showing your support for the Refuge.
- Let President-elect Biden know you want him to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and keep it as a Day One priority for his administration.
- Watch for online petitions and information on helping the Refuge and share them with your family and friends.
We need to come together and protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations would be a good start.
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”
President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, when he signed the Wilderness Act into law in 1964.