Why We Must Act to Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge From Oil Drilling
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is pretty much exactly what is sounds like: a large swath of Alaskan land (over 19 million acres) set aside as a place of refuge for wildlife. The beautiful landscape is a critical habitat for plants and animals and hosts a wider diversity of life than any other protected area in the Arctic, like the majestic Porcupine caribou that use the Coastal Plains of the refuge as their calving grounds each spring. But the area is now being threatened by oil and gas development that would cause permanent damage. TNF team athlete Kit DesLauriers has travelled to the region several times, and just penned a moving editorial for the Huffington Post urging us to demand that Congress protect this critical ecosystem before it’s too late.
Free of roads, trails or any visible sign of modern development, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is an increasingly rare landscape where you can glimpse into nature’s past. Some have called it “America’s Serengeti” due to its sheer diversity of life — throughout the 19 million congressionally protected acres, wolf packs hunt vast herds of caribou, polar bears den and stalk seals, and millions of migratory birds nest and feed during the brief summer. To go there is to discover an untouched America.
While experiencing the wonders of the Refuge with my two young daughters has been one of my life’s great privileges, it breaks my heart to think that they might not be able to do the same with their own children some day.
The Refuge — one of our greatest national treasures — is under threat by fossil fuel interests, and we’ve got to stop them before it’s too late.
Click here to read the rest of Kit’s editorial and click here to add your voice to those who are calling for action.
