For Immediate Release
June 18, 2008
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Bush calls for drilling where tens of
thousands of caribou now gather
While Bush calls for Arctic Refuge drilling, tens of thousands of Caribou are giving birth to the next generation that Bush is working to destroy. His vigilant anti-environmentalism will put Bush in history as the worst president ever, a key reason for the abrupt climate change we are now in that threatens the lives of billions of people.
USFWS Arctic National Wildlife Refuge biologist Tara Wertz said June 18 that the Porcupine Caribou Herd was now calving in the eastern part of the coastal plain, many of them on the area where Bush has called for drilling.
“The Porcupine Caribou Herd Technical Committee has called the coastal plain critical habitat,” she said. Asked about oil development’s affect on the habitat, she said “it would change it.”
More than a hundred thousand caribou mass together on the coastal plain,
where drilling would occur, and give birth to about 50,000 calves.
These caribou feed 17 Gwich’in villages as well as the Inupiat
“Having backpacked hundreds of miles through the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in four expeditions, I know firsthand the critical importance of
protecting this last 5 percent of supposedly protected North Slope of Alaska
from Big Oil henchmen like George Bush,” Kister said.
“Oil Development already sprawls more than a hundred miles from Prudhoe
Bay, into the
While Bush blames Democrats for efforts to protect the great Arctic
Refuge, it was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who originally set the
area aside as the
The far majority in poll after poll say the area must be protected. “Many think of the Arctic Refuge as some place way up north, that they probably will never visit, but are happy that it exists for them to watch on National Geographic specials,” Kister said. “In fact, every time you see a migratory bird, remember more than 160 species from 6 continents and all 50 states breed on the coastal plain, right where oil development would occur. When you hear of so-called clean development, remember the Exxon Valdez.”
The amount of oil in the refuge is miniscule and would have virtually no effect on the price of gas. We must instead invest rapidly in wind and solar, and electric high speed trains. We can create a far better quality of life, where we can work, socialize, eat or sleep in transit while creating more jobs and saving the enormous wasted money in purchasing, maintaining and insuring automobiles, and of course paying for gas.
Above all, it is the climate crisis, now hammering the Arctic, as well as
the
Kister is the Author of Arctic Quest: Odyssey Through a Threatened Wilderness Area; Arctic Melting: How Climate Change is Destroying One of the World’s Largest Wilderness Areas and Against All Odds: The Struggle to Save The Ridges. He is also the producer of the 2006 film Caribou People. The second edition of Arctic Melting is coming out this September, with 100+ more pages and thoroughly updated throughout.