Hmaly: said:Going from 8000 sq acres to 12000 sq acres is small when you consider that Anwar is 15.8 million sq acres. Pesticide problems? Finding one flourescent bear is hardly evidence of a wholescale pesticide problem. Overusage of the natural water supply. What is that all about. Did the caribou's wells run dry. That is such a broad statement, that could mean me taking a bath in the lake.
Another editorial from the Globe and Mail - a business-oriented newspaper- not exactly known up here to be a liberal paper.
....................When the elder George
Bush was president, he had a similar plan to
develop the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That
refuge, which lies along the Alaska-Yukon border,
is the last untapped oil field in the United States.
Environmentalists say drilling would destroy the
crucial calving grounds of the 160,000-strong
Porcupine caribou herd. The Canadian government
agrees, and has protected its half of the area as a
national park.
When Brian Mulroney was prime minister, his
government lobbied to get the U.S. government to
protect its portion of the joint wilderness. The land
was put off limits for oil companies, but only
temporarily; new legislation can open it for
business. It is now unclear how much longer the
caribou will have their babies on a plain that
provides an abundant source of food and safety
from predators. Environmentalists say there is
nowhere else for the creatures to go, and the herd
will eventually die off if this critical habitat is
destroyed.
Now the younger Bush has revived the scheme his
father dropped, arguing that with a potential energy
crisis looming it would be foolish not to open up
at least some of the coastal plain.
The best evidence that he is wrong lies 110
kilometres west of the refuge, in Prudhoe Bay,
Alaska, where oil development turned the region
into a huge industrial complex. Reports on the
damage cite hundreds of open waste pits
containing millions of gallons of waste, the
destruction of thousands of acres of wildlife
habitat and a decline in animal populations.
archives.theglobeandmail.com;
To be fair.. the rest of the editorial details where Canada has come up short on some environmental areas as well - but as they say.. 2 wrongs dont make a right. |
