NJ writes:
But they won't allow drilling in Alaska, in an incredibly barren area, for fear that it might endanger the Arctic Lousewort.
I mean, Alaska is this nations largest state, which is almost half the size of the entire continental United States. That's a lot of land. I'm sure the Arctic Muskrat can figure out a way to get around the oil field.
I was going to stay out of this, until this statement. Barren??!! By "Arctic Muskrat" I assume you mean caribou? The porcupine caribou herd is the largest in the world and is the primary source of food for at least two tribes of the arctic of the US and Canada. I hear these kind of arguments from our homegrown idiots, based completely in misinformation.
ANWR is huge. If the oil drilling were to be random, the impact would be small. However it is not. The exact place where the oil is is also the calving ground of the porcupine caribou herd. They cannot move because the calving ground is, for about 3 weeks each spring, the only region that is mosquito free. Calves born on the fringe of the grounds have nearly 100% mortality from blood loss. This region changes over time, and the herd moves accordingly. The proposed drilling sites would absolutely guarantee the extinction of that herd as happened in the past with others. They will not calve near predators, so the herds move elsewhere to calve and the mosquitoes take them out. Even if we as US citizens lose our collective minds and go for it anyhow we have to face that the herd also 'belongs' to Canada, and their Natives.
"I have seen so far because I have stood on the bloated corpses of my competitors" - Dr Burgess Bowder
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