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sans-serif>It is imperative that Sen. George Voinovich votes against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. His vote is critical if we are to protect the refuge against drilling in the heart of the last intact Arctic ecosystem in North America, an ecosystem the size of California.
In backpacking hundreds of miles through the refuge, I feel firsthand the desperate need to protect this 5 percent of remaining North Slope of Alaska from oil development. This is the last refuge for the hundreds of thousands of caribou that migrate from Canada across the Brooks Mountain Range to mass together on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The coastal plain is also the last refuge for Muskox, primordial creatures with shaggy hair. It is among the largest wetlands in the world. One hundred and sixty species of birds from six continents and all 50 states breed in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain. It is not just someplace way up north; it affects our backyards everywhere around our country and world. This is the breeding ground of a great many of the world’s migratory birds.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is also the densest denning ground in the world for polar bears. Polar bears have been largely wiped out of areas where oil development has occurred. This is all of the last 5 percent of the north slope of Alaska, the heart of this great ecosystem the size of California — 100 million acres. Seventeen Gwich’in Native American communities depend principally upon the Porcupine Caribou herd that breeds on the Arctic refuge coastal plain. These are among the last native people living upon the land as they have for 30,000 years. This is a basic human rights issue for the survival of the Gwich’in.
These next few weeks are among the most critical ever in the more than 40-year struggle to save this great Arctic refuge. Please get active politically. Call, e-mail, fax and write your senators and representatives, and request that they vote against using the budget bill as a mechanism to pass Arctic ridge drilling.
Now is the time to act, before it is too late.
— Chad Kister, an Athens resident, wrote Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness. Send him an e-mail at ckister@chadkister.com.
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Chad Kister
