ANWR:
It stands for something else, I found out on Google...
20% are uninformed
20% are misinformed
10% are simply incapable of rational thought
1% are environmentalists
- Should America drill for new oil in Alaska to reduce America's dependency on oil from Middle East countries?
The poll would be overwhelmingly in favor of drilling if asked like this. As soon as they put the words, "wildlife refuge" and oil drilling together, they get a bunch of people that think the two can not go together.
Where is that picture of all the caribu grazing around the pipeline???
But if they phrased the question differently, such as "to open up a tiny fraction of the reserve" how would the numbers shake down?
There are many great LINKS there too.
Given the greenfreaks that inhabit the place, it would seem that they are preaching to the converted!
They were still pretty hard pressed to make it look anything like Yellowstone.
Wonder why they don't care about the environment in these middle eastern countries, where the technology to maintain the environment is decades behind ours?
"Still, I do have a few shots that will give you a sense of what it looks like up there on the coastal plain. They are of mediocre quality — taken from the cockpit of a small, very jerky plane — so don't give me grief about how I'm no Ansel Adams or how I'm being unfair by showing crappy pictures of what Joe Lieberman calls "one of God's most awesome creations." Also, I don't have time to check against my written notes, so some of these pictures may be of the Prudhoe Bay side of the Canning River, which forms the border of ANWR's coastal plain. The important thing is that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the ANWR side and the Prudhoe side without checking my notes and a map.
So, this and this [133, 134] are pictures of one of the spots where the Canning River lets out into the Arctic Ocean. Just beyond it is ANWR. And this and this [144, 145] are pictures of what I believe is a typical oil-loading facility on what amounts to the coastal plain on the Prudhoe side of the Canning River. This [142] is a typical pipeline running over the tundra and so is this [143]. This [140] is what the coastal plain and most of the tundra in Prudhoe look like, complete with the puddles I described. And so is this [141]. And so is this [137]. There some places without the puddles, however [196].
Now, as for the mountains in ANWR: There are many beautiful mountain ranges in this South Carolina-sized wilderness. But the ones closest to the coastal plain are not covered in lush trees, as you might think from looking at the media coverage. This far north it's too cold, dark, and bleak during the winter for trees to survive. So these mountains are impressive geologically, but — at least from what I saw — they look like barren, massive piles of gravel. For example: [169] [179] [171]. And some have really cool glacier-ice formations on them, like this [178]. But remember, these [180] are still very far from this [150].
I did see some caribou closer than this [150] but I didn't snap any good pictures. As you can see [151], they are hanging out on the shore of the Arctic Ocean trying to escape the bugs. I like to call the one on the very far left-hand corner Arthur. Speaking of the Arctic Ocean, the ice never really goes away [152]. Here you can see the dividing line between what were two giant sheets of ice [154]. That line is not man-made in any way.
And finally, this is me [131] looking like a doofus in hardhat and goggles at the Alpine Oil installation. The reason I don't look fatter is that standing against a large petroleum facility has a beneficial slimming effect, which is the real reason why I am favor of opening up ANWR. I do not pretend that you couldn't take prettier pictures up close on the tundra where the drilling might be, but that's not why I was there. And, besides, you couldn't take pictures of beautiful mountains where the drilling would be because, well, there are no mountains of any kind where the drilling would be.
Anyway, I've got more pictures, but that should do the trick. Besides, this didn't save me any time anyway. I'll just have to wing the speech. "
1) All Americas oil comes from Texas oil wells. Gore said so!
2) Alaska drilling will kill all the plants and numerous animals that live in the Alaska rain forrests.
3) It causes pollution in NY and Los Angeles.
4)Only rich capital businesses use that kind of oil.
Bush needs to educate. You would not believe how many people have no idea our oil comes from the middle east. If the polls are rising, someone must be letting them know!
Oh this baby bear is being SWALLOWED - oh the humanity!
Oh Brother!
^_____^
In 1998 the USGS did a study that concluded that there are between 5.7 billion to 16 Billion barrels of recoverable Oil in the "1002" Area of ANWR.
An exploration rig seen damaging the tundra and disturbing the abundent wildlife on the costal plane of ANWR
Beautiful Spring day in "Americas Serengetti"
That is a LOT of oil!
and it dosent even take into consideration the nearly 200 TRILLION cubic feet of natural gas there (over 150 years supply at the current rate of use in the U.S.)
A little perspective on the size of ANWR development:
Gee, then I guess I must be living in a huge wasteland... actually, I find the sight of all those oil derricks in the pastures and fields while driving from Austin to Houston rather beautiful...
As for your assertion that drilling in ANWR would decimate the environment, only 2,000 acres out of 19.5 MILLION are even under consideration for drilling. And those 19.5 million acres are but a FRACTION of the total land mass of Alaska. Also, contrary to dire predictions of the devasting impact on wildlife that would occur when we ran the pipeline in Prudhoe bay, the caribou herd there have actually grown to record numbers.
For REAL information on ANWR, let's use science, not the knee-jerk, anti-reason "precautionary principle": click here for info on ANWR and here for an excellent article by Linda Chavez about how Alaskans themselves view it. The Heritage Foundation also has an article which simply and plainly states the case for drilling here. Also read The National Center for Public Policy Research Press Release entitled "Bush Is Right: Opening ANWR To Oil Exploration Would Help Consumers Without Hurting Environment"