This web log was added to my website to showcase the beauty and sometimes harsh realities of nature. I add things as the inspiration hits me. I have resisted posting “hot button” issues… that is until now…
As anyone knows (who does not live in a cocoon) there is a rather important Presidential election fast approaching. While I will abstain from bombarding you, my readers with my own personal pick for President, I am at this time compelled to react to one issue in particular. That issue is the proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
I am continuously disappointed in the short-sightedness of the human animal. I am also disappointed in our perpetual conceit. Contrary to the beliefs of some, the ANWR is not a “useless place” on this planet. It may have no use to humans for development or as a vacation hot spot. We may see this drilling area as “an ugly, vast wasteland”. It is easy to justify destruction of an area like this by first ridding our consciences of any guilt. After all, what good is a land like this anyway? And it isn’t very big…really…
If we look into the future, I mean WELL into the future, hundreds maybe even thousands of years from now when our great grandchildren’s grandchildren will be here as we are now, it seems to me that the wise thing for our species to do at this time is to reach beyond what we know today and seek solutions that are sustainable for our lives now and for those who follow us. Drilling in ANWR is a temporary fix at best. It may not seem so temporary, as it may bring us our beloved oil for awhile. But what about later on? Isn’t this as good a time as ever to be bridging the gap between destruction and sustainability? If not now, then when? We have the technology. We have the brilliant minds who are ready and willing to take that technology to the next step into implementation, which will indeed bridge that gap.
The problem here lies in the funding. My husband has worked in the alternative energy field and we have good friends who are blazing new paths that will benefit all of us in the future. But a lack of funding has these brilliant minds in a stranglehold. I am not just saying this out of ignorance. I am experiencing what is happening on the front lines of this issue, because my husband is on the front line of the alternative energy issue.
When oil is drilled, it then has to be piped somewhere so that it becomes a “usable” commodity. Pipelines run for hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles. So one cannot simply show a photograph of a drilling area and say “well, this is IT folks.” That is simply not the truth on this matter.
I have traveled around the world. I have spent real time in “barren” places. It never ceases to amaze me how much life thrives in places that seem at a glance to be uninhabitable. It is an ignorant point of view that land like this has no value. Life is everywhere, even in “useless” places. It may not matter to us, but it does matter to the many creatures, some great and some very small, that call places like this home. Why does land have to be of some kind of value to man to be worth saving?
The real issue to me is the idea behind our desire to drill in Alaska, or anywhere else for that matter. If we allow this kind of thinking to prevail, it will be business as usual for our species. It seems that until we no longer have a choice on matters like this one, we just can’t seem to step up and push ourselves to be at our best and do what is really right.
The time has come. It is here. I believe it is now time to rise up to the best of our potential and put the propaganda behind us. We are not mindless robots. We are thinking beings who are now faced with tough choices. It is my hope and dream….that we make wise ones…