How would you feel if someone was coming onto your
land and began taking things from you? What if they began sacrificing your
food, your shelter, and your family for their own personal gain? Well it does
not make me happy. I am an unhappy Polar Bear and my land is in danger.These
people, particularly oil companies, want to come to my homeland, the Arctic
Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and begin drilling for oil and natural-gases.
Does this sound wrong to you? It does to me and my family.
This has been a controversy on my land since 1977.
The reason this is such a hot topic here is because the ANWR has an estimated
amount of 5.7 to 16 billion barrels of oil. The American people love their oil
and need more and more of it to satisfy their needs. To me, there is no
question what should happen. There should be no drilling because it can hurt
the food I eat and can take up land that I use for shelter. Why don’t people
see this as a big red flag.
Here’s why they think it is a good idea: George W. Bush stated in 2007 that
drilling in the Arctic would be a good thing for America and there would be a
huge economic boom and it would begin to grow. With this oil drilling, more job
opportunities would be available, more oil that is not being imported from
other countries and less money being spent on foreign trade. There is an
estimated reduced net expenditure on imported oil of $135 to $327 billion by
2030. That is a whole lot of money that America would not have to spend on oil,
if only they could start drilling in the ANWR.
But here is why it should not happen: It would
require more oil platforms, pipelines, roads and support facilities. Those take
up a lot of space and energy, which belongs to me and the environment around
me. Why would you take that away from me? It also puts my food source at risk.
What is there is an oil spill?? If the oil spills into the Arctic, that
contaminates my food and the fish that I eat. There would be nowhere else for
me to get food from. And it would be killing everything that lives in the sea
that I do not eat. It is not fair for these creatures to be put at risk just
because you want all this oil. There is also a tribe, the Gwich’in tribe, that
lives about 3 miles away in the village of Kaktovik. They get 60-70% of their
diet from the same land that I use. If you take that away from them, you are
also taking away human rights as well as my rights.
Here’s another thing, the weather here is terrible!
It is not suited for the type of drilling that these companies want to do. The
only good time to really drill here is from July to October because that is
when it is warm enough for the ice to be broken. But if there is an oil spill,
the oil can get trapped in frozen ice and won’t be able to be taken out until
July again. That is oil trapped in the sea for 9 months!
Have you heard of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?? It happened on April 20th,
2010. The oil spill was monstrous with 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed out of
the oil rig and into the Gulf of Mexico. It gushed and gushed for 87 days. It
is considered one of the largest accidental marine oil spills ever. The Gulf of
Mexico is a host of 8,332 different species. Those species of marine life were
put at risk and some lost their lives and their source of food. Why do people
want to put our land at risk for this as well? There could be a repeat of this
situation and it could harm someone in my family. It could even harm the human
beings that live in the village of Kaktovik that get their food source from
this land.
One of the main oil companies looking at my land is
Shell. Shell is planning to drill this summer, the summer of 2015 in the
Arctic. They have invested $4.5 billion on permits and other regulations just
so they can start drilling for this oil. That is a lot of money that could be
used to help save my land, not destroy it.
Thankfully, the government has the first ever
federal regulations on how and where people can drill for oil and natural gases
in the ANWR. It still does not satisfy me, but it helps a little.
Here are some:
*
The companies need to have an available
and additional rig that could drill a relief well in case the company loses
control.
*
They need to construct and test a
containment dome in case of an oil spill and need to submit a region-specific
spill response plan.
*
The cost of regulation will be much
higher for the companies who plan on drilling here.
The president of the United States, Barack Obama is
on my side. He does not believe in drilling in the Arctic and he wants to save
my family and land as well. He is trying to pass a bill that blocks of 13
million acres of my land, the ANWR, blocks off part of Chukchi and Beufort
seas, and blocks off 32.5 million acres of the Bristol Bay. I think I like him.
This saves a lot of my land and a lot of the places where I get my food and my
resources. But what about the other animals that live on the land where
drilling will take place? What will happen to them and their families?
Hear from the Alaskan people and see for yourself.
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