Should Artic Drilling Be Legal

Thesis

Should oil and other fossil fuels run our lives? I do not know but I can tell

you this with all certainty. The world as we know is predicated on use of

fuel. Everything that we know and love is tinged by fossil fuels. We have built ourselves in a corner with the misuse of fossil fuels. There is no way we can go back to the 1600's before electricity and all sorts of innovations. We would have to regress substantially to live without fossil fuels. Human beings would have to collectively agree in unison for this to take place. That is where cold hard reality steps forward. It is not going to happen in your lifetime or mine. So where does that leave us? Since we cannot go backwards to simpler times we must forward with what we have been doing. Sounds elementary to think about, but that is where we must. The question I want to ask is simple. Should special interest places like the National Wildlife Refuge be open to drilling? I think so. As I stated earlier in this passage is that we the people of the world have based are very lives on the use of fossil fuels and there is no turning back. Even the most savage of African tribes and modest Quaker are using fossil fuels. There is no way to stop the use of fossil fuels unless we run out of the resource. This is where the hunt for other resources begins. Ecologists can vote against and chain themselves to redwood trees, but the

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fact remains the same. If we need new resources as human beings then we will find there sources. Whether it be in war or peace the agenda is the same. Human beings will persevere.

Where do the two sides rest on this issue? In the United States this has been a subject of great consternation. This very subject has been talked about behind closed doors in the house or Representatives and on the Congress cutting room floor. There is no split down the middle. It is not even close on what the general public thinks about this issue. It is something like 70 to 30 in favor of no drilling in Alaska. This is what I know. Everybody wants to be an ecologist and conservationist until we run out of fossil fuels and they are walking everywhere and living in abject hell huddled around endless fires inside the empty buildings that once ran but do not have the power to do so anymore. Sounds bleak? Yeah I know it does. Let's look at the other side of the coin. Would drilling in the Artic and places like Northern Alaska mess up ecosystems and produce countless sources of pollution? Yeah, you bet your life it would. This is the price we pay for the path we forged for ourselves throughout history. Why are scientists up in arms about Artic drilling? Well let's look at the facts: (1) Once the drills start, government scientists have predicted a 40 percent chance of one or more large oil

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spills in the Chukchi Sea alone. (2) Beaufort Sea oil drilling off the Arctic Refuge coast risks devastating spills harming marine feeding zones and shorelands vital to threatened polar bears, migratory birds and even caribou insect-relief habitats. (3) Bristol Bay supports one of the world's remaining rich salmon and other fisheries that would be harmed by spills and noise disturbance. (4) Proposed offshore development will require pipelines, roads, and support facilities across sensitive tundra and coasts adding to cumulative impact across America's Arctic. These are damaging factors that keep the government from allowing access to these areas but are far from enough. We have to preserve our way of life. The population of the Earth has gotten out of control and when you have more population there is ultimately going to be a need a need for sustained resources. With U.S production at nearly a 50-year low and oil reserves in this country shrinking, George Bush has made ANWR's development a key part of his energy package. The House finally decided to approve drilling in the refuge, largely on the promise of two important numbers. First, to calm moderates in his party, Republican Congressman

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