The word on the White House lawn is that we are about to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Words such as "oil drilling" are pretty common around that lawn I would imagine, since many of those walking around are some of the largest oil investors and businessmen, from Bush to Enron's Kenneth Lay to Al Gore. It would be nice to finally have some new, refreshing words for once.
Few politicians in capital hill address the urgent need for more of our tax money to develop new energy technologies that are not based on environmental destruction but on its natural cycles. Bush's resignation from the Kyoto agreement to reduce fossil fuel emissions was soaked in as much kerosene greed as was his father's statement after refusing to sign the Convention on Biodiversity in 1992: "It is important to protect our rights, our business rights." Since parting from the Kyoto agreement, the United States has increased its CO2 emissions by 3.1 percent.
It is time we listen to what Alaskan people who live around Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are saying about the drilling, as opposed to listening to those that can turn stars into dollar bills and land into pieces of real-estate. Alaskan communities are facing the same difficult challenges that many land-based communities around the world are confronted with.
The challenge is how to balance the communities control over their subsistence way of living while addressing the devastating impacts of profit-over-people companies, and the legacies of colonial exploitation. The Gwich'in indigenous communities fear the impacts that drilling will have on the caribou and the rest of the Alaskan ecosystem. However, some indigenous communities are caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of jobs and are encouraging well thought out strategies for clean drilling.
The destruction of cultures and environments is at the center of our energy crises. If we do not realize this then we will continue drilling until the earth's surface resembles Swiss cheese and only those who can afford bottled oxygen can afford to breathe.
Many native Alaskans will tell you that global warming is as real as waking up every morning. They will tell you how the tree line has shifted about 35 miles north, and how huge island ice packs that travel down from the north every winter as far back as generations of human memory can recall, have suddenly disappeared. These islands provided nutrients to fishes and birds, mating grounds and other life necessities. It is reported that polar bears are pacing back and forth along the northern Alaskan shoreline waiting for these islands of snow to arrive.
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Warmer summers, melting ice and changes in animal behavior are some of the reasons why our "business rights" need to be re-evaluated, and our human rights need to be looked at in a global context. Within Alaskan communities, there is an understandable sense of mistrust in Bush when he says that we will drill while "leaving only footprints."
For more than 40 years Alaskans have tried to get the U.S. government to clean up the toxic waste left over from their military bases and previous oil expeditions. These oil and military operations might have pumped a little more cash into the local economy, but their toxic waste has resulted in a drastic increase in local cancers and widespread pollution of the food chain. Even when the military said they cleaned up several sites people found out that most of the waste was hidden below the snow.
The real energy crisis is when communities struggling to continue to live in balance with the land are the same communities whose foods are being contaminated and whose blood is flowing with toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, those that profit from these oil explorations live in a 33-room house without having to at least pay for the electrical bills, as does Dick Cheney. If we really want to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and remedy our energy crises then it is time to put more thought into designing renewable technologies, protecting self-sustaining communities and redefining our energy policies.
by Maceo Carrillo Martinet
Daily Lobo Columnist
Questions or comments can be sent to Maceo Carrillo Martinet at conuco8@unm.edu.
