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RussiaToday News
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#USA #Alaska #caribou

Good bye, caribou?

It’s happened. U.S. officials have chosen oil. And they have spat on nature.
A U.S. budget bill that would allow for exploratory drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was initially approved in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday. Another vote will be required.
One of the elements of president Trump’s tax reform is leasing a part of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s lands but it has unforeseeable consequences for Alaska’s people Gwinch’in who living through four time zones away from Washington. These lands are believed to hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 3.7 billions cubic meters of natural gas. It could give $1.48 billion to the American budget over the next 10 years. Ms. Liza Murcowski is playing role Uncle Scrooge McDuck who always was greedy for dollars. Just she is a proponent of the plan. By the way, she is the senior Republican senator from Alaska i.e. just she must defend Alaska’s interest in Washington.
For a long time environmentalists and local people have been keeping an eye on oil and gas industry protecting Arctic National Wildlife Refuge zealously. All the time they have been trying to keep a rare species of reindeer – caribou that lives only there. Because of global warming the number of caribou is coming down now. Deer have a habit to spend winters on Canadian island Victoria where they go on ice. Scientists say about a sad fact: the Arctic ice isn’t the same as it was several years ago. We have a little ice, it becomes thinner. Many times local people saw caribou fallen through the ice when they migrated. Some of them perished, the other part got out to the land by swimming and then they went with ice on their skins for a long time. It is bad for their health.
So, environmentalists and Gwinch’in are protesting. The nation could survive only thanks to caribou. Now caribou for them are not only a source of nutrition but a source of their life force. But Washington doesn’t care about the protests because sees dollars in front of itself. And cries about poor 20 thousand heads of caribou, 2 thousand Gwinch’in, 200 species birds, about the biggest population of polar bears in the USA living on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s territory are vain. It’s unlikely that the cries could soften officials’ hearts because they quite well understand one language – the language of money. It’s useless to say about Russia investing huge money in protect of the Arctic delicate ecosystem. Excuse us, but Alaska isn’t Russia. So, the Russian ecological programs aren’t carried out there.
The best arguments for people making such irresponsible decisions are calculations and economic justification of the projects. They are thought to be interesting in David Murphy’s argumentation. He is an assistant professor of environmental studies at St. Laurence University. He compared, count, and drew a conclusion that drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has “no sense”. It’s not because of environment. Just it’s unprofitable. He says the “energy argument” is unconvincing: drilling on the territory worth more than it seems. Now companies aren’t ready to pay the rent for an acre of the land in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge more than $194. At the best. But somebody planned to get in seven times more - $1300!
So, U.S. senators have a great opportunity: not make so dreadful decision and save the Arctic refuge both for America and the world. A refusal to drilling can demonstrate the entire world that the USA is an environmentally responsible state and that it as a bulwark of democracy can care of its entire citizen even very small as Gwinch’in. So, the USA, it’s your move! And we will see who you are: justice fighters or not.