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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (138630)	8/6/2001 11:39:23 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1580037

It's just some lousy oil. I was thinking, "It's just some lousy caribou". Not that it comes down to it, but if it did, some of us would rather have the oil than the caribou. In reality, it doesn't matter, because you can have both. It is not going to bother the damned caribou one bit to have drilling for oil on this tract of land the size of a small cattle ranch. The argument that drilling on some 2000 acres is going to somehow materially affect the millions of acres in ANWR is absurd. You could dump the Valdez oil out on the 2000 acres and it would make any difference, other than to kill a few plants and animals that don't matter anyway. It is the same type of argument you had when the idiot Carl Sagan (RIP) got on TV during the Gulf War saying, "If Saddam sets these oil wells on fire, we'll see a nuclear winter; we could see worldwide famine because crops won't grow". Well, Saddam set the oil wells on fire, and there was no nuclear winter and the crops grew, and while there was some temporary damage to the region, life is back to normal and has been for years. I might add that these are the same idiots that got on TV when SDI was first under consideration and said, "It is technologically infeasible. You just can't do it. It can't be done. We'll never be able to do it. Just too complex." Never occurs to them that technology changes over time. It was obvious then, as it is now, that SDI will work; and 20 years from now we may be able to protect our country from any number of simultaneous incoming missles. Impossible, you say? Well, I'll remind you that 40 short years ago you would have been ridiculed if you'd suggested that a pocket calculator the size of a credit card would be available in 10 years. The Earth is a resilient place. It has been through a lot, and it is not going to stop now. If liberals would use their minds instead of their emotion they might see this.

To: Alighieri who wrote (138630)	8/9/2001 9:35:55 PM
From: hmaly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1580037

Al Re..130000 caribou have been pissing on that sensitivity for thousands of years.<<<<< And any farmer would know that any grass which can take the abuse of 130,000 caribou for months each summer, without getting damaged permanently can't be that sensitive. It's just some lousy oil. Al <<<<< And it is just a lousy plain on the edge of ANWR. Most of your reasons for not drilling there are just hyped up scare tactics. There is an article in this wk of Newsweek. Read it and enjoy. http://www.msnbc.com/news/609750.asp#BODY<<<<<< While this a neutral piece on ANWR. the article dispels some of your scare phrases. 1) The caribous need the plain for a calving ground. You will note this paragraph. In three days and nights camping on the plain in June, we saw about 20 caribou—the full herd didn’t make it to its traditional calving ground at the usual time this year because of unusual weather conditions. <<<<< There we have it. There goes your "The caribou won't give birth any place else. Just as I predicted. The hard apparently can and will give birth where ever they happen to be when it is time. 2) The coastal plain is a beautiful pristene, sensitive area. You will note this paragraph.Most Americans who want to protect the Arctic refuge will never see it, and there’s good reason for that. In February when the sun hardly comes up, temperatures drop to an average of about 4 degrees below zero. And in the endless days of July, visitors can hardly breathe without sucking mosquitoes down their throats. Some Alaskans familiar with the refuge, like oil consultant Ken Boyd, don’t understand the attraction of the place. “You can’t see the end of the world from there, but you’re pretty darn close,” says Boyd, a geophysicist who once directed Alaska’s Division of Oil and Gas.<<<<<<< No wonder the oil companies only want to drill in winter. The plain is inhospitable in summer. 3) If we drill the oil companies will spill oil, and ruin pristene land that hasn't seen a drop of oil. You will note this paragraph. Nobody really knows how much petroleum there is under the ANWR coastal plain. Although oil seeps out of the tundra in some places—staining bogs with a bluish-black sheen—some scientists believe the seeps are evidence that a potential reservoir underneath has been crushed and ruined over geologic time. <<<<< Say what. Oil is already seeping out of the ground; and the best way to keep the ground from getting more contaminated may be to drill and pump the oil before it can seep onto the ground and really ruin the area. Drilling may be the best way to protect the area from a huge oil spill, which is happening naturally. If you had a con of oil in the back of your garage which was leaking oil onto your floor, wouldn't you empty out the can before more oil spills, and stains more of your floor.. Same here. 4) Alaskan are divided over drilling. You will note this. Yet a majority of Alaskans, including Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles, favor drilling in the Alaska refuge—in part because the state and its citizens largely depend on the oil industry for jobs and revenues. “We can fulfill the image and vision of Alaska as the nation’s storehouse of wilderness areas ... as well as its storehouse of energy,” says Knowles. “We can have them both.” 5) The Grenwich indians are real indians who have lived a simple natural life, living on the caribou, and disdaining mans modern conveniences. You will note this. That doesn’t mean they aren’t open to outside influence: the Gwichin live in electrified homes, watch satellite TV and many drive all-terrain vehicles they call “four wheelers.” <<<<< Say what. The Grenwich indians are driving SUVs, have satellite TV, and have electrified homes, instead of wood heated teepees. Whats next. We will hear that they use their 4 wheelers for hunting those caribou with assault rifles. 6) There isn't much oil in Alaska, so why bother. You will note this. Alaska has the largest area of wilderness lands in the country by far—an area roughly the size of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland combined. Yet it also has the nation’s two largest oilfields, and is second only to Texas in proven reserves of crude. <<<<<<< I have no objection to leaving ANWR alone if you could actually tell the truth, and come up with actual good reasons not to drill. To say it is just some lousy oil, signifies to me that you have no idea how important oil is to our existence every day; and you have no idea how hard it will be to wean America off of cheap oil. If you really want to have the Us go to alternate fuels, and if you believe in the big bang theory; as long as there is ANWR, there will always be the spectre of cheap oil to turn to; therefore alternatives never will get a firm grip until ANWR is developed; because we haven't capitulated yet.