Alaska is known for many things, such as their cold winters, dogsled races, and the breathtaking Northern Lights. When I hear the word Alaska I think of their wilderness. I think of all their rare animals that don’t live anywhere else in the world. People pay every month to keep that area pure and not touched. Do you think that it’s fair for the government to just swoop in and take all that away from them? Drilling in Alaska is a bad idea because it will hurt the environment, it won’t boost the economy, and it could kill off many endangered species that cannot be found anywhere else.
Drilling in the U.S. has been a controversy in the U.S. since 1977, but one of the main concerns about this is how will it affect the economy (1)? If the U.S. decided to start drilling it would take 7-12 years to get all set up before they would start producing oil (1). Currently the United States uses about 21 million barrels a day, and only 6 million of those are produced domestically (2). According to msnbc, a U.S. news site, drilling for oil will open up jobs but if the oil will only last us 6 months then by the time the oil is gone they will be unemployed again (1). Another great point to bring up in this case would be that by drilling for this oil the U.S.’s economy will not grow, we will simply gain back what we have already lost (3). Lastly the U.S. uses 25-30% of the world’s oil supply, so the best thing that the Unites States of America can do at this point would be to develop alternatives to oil so that we could save more (3).
The ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) is not ready to give up their 19 million acres of land that has been devoted to being a sanctuary and safe place for animals to roar freely (4). This environment is the largest protected wilderness in the entire U.S. To these people this wilderness is their life and they believe very passionately that this land should stay the way it is. Although this does have a lot of affect on the animals it also effects the environment as well. If the drilling is approved it could permanently contaminate the landscape and could have mountains of sewage slush if a pipe breaks or something doesn’t go as planned (1). One mistake and all of it will be gone.
A lot of people argue that this will be a good thing and will help America but what they don’t know is how much oil is actually down there. The oil will only last for approximately 6 months (1). Also the oil is not all in one place it is spread out along the entire ANWR. There is about 10.4 million barrels of oil left in Alaska and what most scientists and trained professionals are thinking is that only 5.7 of those barrels are actually retrievable (3). Are we really willing to take that risk, I mean what if even less than that amount is retrievable. Another main point is how will we repay the people at the ANWR for the oil, we just took their precious wildlife away and destroyed it completely just so that the U.S. could gain some money(4). What will we do when the oil there is gone, we will have destroyed the environment and animals completely so what will happen to that environment?
Killing off endangered species, poisoning the environment, and hurting our economy are all reasons why we should not drill for oil in Alaska. In so many ways drilling is wrong. I mean honestly, the government has told everyone to saty away from the ANWR yet they want to just change their own rule? Why wouldn’t the United States’ rules not apply to them? What makes them any better than the rest of us? If it could hurt the environment and the animals then we all have to ask ourselves: is it really worth it?(4)
Source 1: "Arctic Power - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - SHELL OCS Plans Inch Closer to Reality." Arctic Power - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. http://www.anwr.org/Headlines/SHELL-OCS-Plans-Inch-Closer-to-Reality.php.
Source 2: "Arctic Refuge drilling controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Refuge_drilling_controversy.
Source 3: "Oil Drilling in Alaska | Environmental News, Articles & Information | Global Warming News | EcoWorld." Environmental News, Articles & Information | Global Warming News | EcoWorld | Environmental News, Information & Articles on Climate Change, Global Warming and Sustainability. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. http://www.ecoworld.com/animals/oil-drilling-in-alaska.html.
Source 4:"Would drilling more Alaskan oil cut prices? - Business - Answer Desk - msnbc.com." msnbc.com - Breaking news, science and tech news, world news, US news, local news- msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12993250/ns/business-answer_desk/t/would-drilling-more-alaskan-oil-cut-prices/>.
