This is what the area to be drilled looks like. The Coastal Plain of Northeast Alaska. And they are only talking about drillingon and developing about 2000 acres of this "pristine wilderness".
Posted on 06/13/2008 5:08:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
Sen. John McCain said this week he would not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for the same reason he "would not drill in the Grand Canyon ... I believe this area should be kept pristine."
Pristine means unspoiled, virginal, in an original state.
One wonders how pristine the Grand Canyon can be if it has roughly 5 million visitors every year, rafting, hiking, picnicking and riding mules up one side and down the other. Campfires, RVs and motels that do not conjure the word "virginal" ring around large swaths of it.
This isn't to say that the Grand Canyon isn't a beautiful place; it inspires awe among those who visit it. ANWR (pronounced "AN-wahr) inspires awe almost entirely in those who haven't been there. It is an environmental Brigadoon or Shangri-La, a fabled land almost no one will ever see. That is its appeal. People like the idea that there are still Edens "out there" even if they will never, ever see them.
Indeed, if Americans could visit the north coast of Alaska, as I have, as easily as they can visit the Grand Canyon, the oil would be flowing by now.
ANWR is roughly the size of South Carolina, and it is spectacular. However, the area where, according to Department of Interior estimates, some 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil reside is much smaller and not necessarily as awe-inspiring. It would amount to the size of Dulles airport.
Question for McCain: Has South Carolina been ruined because it has an airport?
Most of the images of the proposed drilling area that people see on the evening news are misleading precisely because they tend to show the glorious parts of ANWR, even though that's not where the drilling would take place. Even when they position their cameras in the right location, producers tend to point them in the wrong direction. They point them south, toward the Brooks mountain range, rather than north, across the coastal plain where the drilling would be.
In summer, the coastal plain is mostly mosquito-plagued tundra and bogs. (The leathernecks at Prudhoe Bay joke that "life begins at 40" - because at 40 degrees, clouds of mosquitoes and other pests take flight from the ocean of puddles). In the winter, it reaches 70 degrees below zero (not counting wind chill, which brings it to 120 below) and is in round-the-clock darkness.
A few years back, Jimmy Carter wrote of proposed drilling in ANWR in the New York Times: "The roar alone - of road-building, trucks, drilling and generators - would pollute the wild music of the Arctic and be as out of place there as it would be in the heart of Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon."
The roads are made from ice, hence constructed in winter, doing no permanent damage to the environment. As for the discordant notes such activity would introduce to the Arctic symphony, I don't know whether a falling tree makes a sound if no one is there to hear it, but I suspect that the "wild music" of the Arctic in winter is only euphonious to those - like Carter - who are not actually there to hear it.
Even in summer, people who actually live on the north coast of Alaska, like the residents of Kaktovik (just three miles north of the coastal plain where drilling might take place) overwhelmingly think good jobs in their backyard is music to their ears.
Meanwhile, is the "music" of the Grand Canyon really so pristine? Babies crying, kids chasing lizards, campers laughing, donkeys braying, cars honking: Why does this not trouble the consciences of Carter and McCain?
Perhaps it's because the analogy between ANWR and the Grand Canyon is spurious on its face. "Pristine," after all, is not synonymous with beautiful (there are ugly virgins), and "well-trafficked" is not the same as ugly (millions of people have seen the Sistine Chapel).
Indeed, before the age of environmental Romanticism had captured elite opinion in this country, such analogies didn't pass the laugh test. Both the New York Times and Washington Post editorial boards enthusiastically supported drilling in ANWR in the late 1980s. The Post noted that the area "is one of the bleakest, most remote places on this continent, and there is hardly any other where drilling would have less impact on surrounding life. ..." To say such things today is to unforgivably pollute the inane music of groupthink. And that's something even the "maverick" McCain will not do.
If a Belgian brewer buys Budwieser it is a win/win for the entire planet!
I would even support the Beligian beerboarding the former Budwieser execs until they beg for forgiveness.
“while the other seeks to extract from it enough oil to make only a small dent in our consupmption; these positions are overblown into grounds for a huge knock-down drag-out”
The notion that ANWR is overblown because it will only supply part of our needs is one of the dumbest ever put forth in discussing energy needs. That is, unless some think we’ll find the one big gusher that supplies all our energy needs.
But a million barrels per day from ANWR, and a million from shale, and a million from the Atlantic, and a million from the Bakken formation, and maybe another million from the Gulf and even the Pacific, then we’re talking some real crude oil.
There will be much economic hardship because of the failures to address this issue sensibly since the 1970s. The left is more to blame, but those on the right who pretend the markets will solve all problems are also to blame.
The idea that drilling for oil will permanently destroy a wilderness is wrong. When the drilling is over and the oil is gone, mother nature will reclaim the area so that even the sensitive eyes of John McCain will not be offended.
Pristine, my foot. Reminds me of Feb. 1978, annual Vulcan service practice at Todendorf, Germany. That's what the frickin' Baltic looked like, as 20mm bullets were bouncing off the damn ice.
I've never been so cold in my life...hated the entire experience.
Drill!!! Drill!!! Then drill some more!!!
“When the drilling is over and the oil is gone, mother nature will reclaim the area so that even the sensitive eyes of John McCain will not be offended.”
Another aspect of the arrogance and self-importance of the environmental extremist is that they can’t grasp the reality that our (and their) time on earth is a mere blink of an eye compared to the age of earth. What we do or don’t do is of little importance to the existence of the earth. Mother Nature will take care of things as you say. A century of two from now, no one would know or care whether or not we drilled in ANWR.
There is need for being environmentally responsible, but these earth worshipers have no sense of reality.
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These people have McCain in their back pocket. I’m sure he’s made a promise not to drill to them or groups like them.
http://www.southernenvironment.org/about/staff.htm
Yep. That's exactly the underlying message I got from Congr. Moron's aide on the phone yesterday.
To paraphrase, people who live in the greater midwest and rural America "should have thought about" public transportation options like subways, buses, and bike paths as we have in Metro DC. If I properly understood her drift, it was "Screw 'em".
You see, the environmental lefties who work on Capitol Hill really don't care to admit that America is a vast continent with a lot of open space, and not some little European nothing of a country. They want you folks out in Missouri and Oklahoma and Kansas to build trains and public bussing and more bike paths to haul yourself and the nation's agricultural products around the country.
If you didn't think of that before now, it's your own damned fault.
>>>>I’d be willing to bet that once the pipeline’s in, caribou and polar bears will be flocking to the warmth those pipelines provide.<<<<<
Dead-on correct.
More great ANWR and related photos here, on this very informative site:
I hear no environmentalists crying when the pristine landscapes of the Midwest are littered with thousands of massive windmills. Of course this is flyover country were us bitter hicks are clinging to our religion and guns and are not as enlightened as the liberal elites.
I totally agree. As a lifelong Republican I feel the same way. We need a third party, a party that conservatives can get behind. Any correspondence I get in the mail from the GOP goes right in the trash.
The GOP politicians neither listen nor serve the conservative base anymore. The GOP deserves exactly what it is going to get.
I’ve been to Alaska (one month camping) and it is a magnificent state. I even camped on the shores of downtown Valdez and it was beautiful.
But above Fairbanks, Alaska becomes unforgiving. Permafrost turns the road leading north to the Arctic Circle into a carnival roller coaster. Oil supply rigs are charging up your tailpipe at 50/60 MPH (as you struggle at 30 to stay on the road). Temps in August were 90+F. The mosquitos and gnats were incredibly annoying. The four hours of nighttime was most disconcerting.
I don’t see your average Appalachian Mountain Club enviro-weenie having a “good time” in ANWR unless they enjoy sweating, swarms of mosquitos, trudging through the tundra muck, and etc.
It is not the White Mountains or the Wyoming and Colorado Rockies.
“...but those on the right who pretend the markets will solve all problems are also to blame.”
I think I understand your point, but could you elucidate please? My position is that given the freedoms to persue resource, free markets can resolve the problems.
Am I one of those to blame?
Imagine a country that is rich in natural resources, but the great majority of the resources are located in beautiful, scenic places. So what does the country do, get those resources or leave them untapped and suffer the consequences? Can anyone imagine any other country in the world not tapping their natural resources? It’s sheer stupidity. And furthermore what if we did find a trillion barrels of oil in the Grand Canyon (I’ve been there twice, the place is beyond the description of natural beauty)? Don’t drill there? Again that would be sheer stupidity.
This is what the area to be drilled looks like. The Coastal Plain of Northeast Alaska. And they are only talking about drillingon and developing about 2000 acres of this "pristine wilderness".
You've described it perfectly. These are the types of people who seriously believe everyone should live in huge megalopolises inside tiny rabbit hutches. Everyone but themselves of course.
You may be right, but I think it’s a distinction without a difference. Yes, ANWR is the battleground on which the two armies have chosen or been destined to meet. No, it is not enough of a find to change our energy destiny for all time. But the side that wins will have momentum and a precedent for drilling in many more places in Alaska, the Rockies, the Gulf, and the Great Plains.
Anyone who opposes drilling ANWR is an enemy. They seek the downfall of America. They are NOT patriotic americans. They are NOT good people. They must be defeated, utterly crushed.
It’s long past time to collar a few of these asshats and put them on a big ol’ aero liner to Alaska.
Time for show and tell.
Lisshen, mah friend, I sometimes think this republic is in a condition similar to the old Soviet Union in its latter days. It seems strong, immense, powerful, but it is brittle. It could shatter with a strong hard push, and when the time comes I hope your colleagues understand the correct tangent on which to direct their fire.
That's when you should have said that they won't be drilling in their districts. So why are those constituant more important then the ones in Alaska that DO want drilling in their district? Personally I don't want to see any cars or buses in Congressman MORON's district polluting. Why is ANWR supposed to be pristine, but these jackholes are allowed to pollute? Why is my voice not heard where I can influence my opinon onto them??
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