Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This is a rant. This is not a drill.

Rant alert. This is a rant alert. This is not a drill.

The longer I watched the National Geographic program on Tue. night concerning oil exploration in America and the continued desire of the oil companies to drill on the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, the angrier I became. While it's true that I, nor many Americans, will ever have the opportunity to visit that refuge, I strongly believe in it's preservation.

Consider this: The native residents of that particular land took a poll, asking whether they should vote to allow exploration. Even though each and every one of them would become rich by allowing access, the poll showed they wanted to bar the oil companies and preserve the land of their ancestors and for their children.

Yes, we need oil. We always will. Wind farms and solar energy help and should be developed but we will always need oil to preserve our present way of life. Oil is used for billions, yes billions, of the products we use everyday. One set of tires for our cars needs 22 gallons of oil to produce.

The U.S. uses 20 million barrels of oil daily. We produce less than half that. Will ANWR fill the gap? No! ANWR comprises only 5% of Alaska's North Slope. The Prudhoe Bay pipeline is now pumping less than 1/3 of the original flow. Alaska's entire oil production is 1/2 what it was ten years ago. It has been estimated that ANWR would supply the petroleum needs of the U.S. for less than six months. Do we really want to damage this pristine wilderness for such a drop in the oil bucket? Remember, it's believed that offshore Alaska contains as much oil as half of the entire lower 48. So should we rape ANWR so that that some oil company CEO's can buy a new yacht? Because that's all we, the common people, will see from it. If you believe the price of a gallon of gas will drop due to wells drilled in the middle of the caribou migraton path, I got some beach area in Arizona I'd like to sell you.

It's not only caribou, the polar bear is slowly losing it's habitat as well due to ice melt. Twenty percent of the ground there is frozen tundra that is slowly melting and releasing CO2 into the air. One third of Earth's carbon is frozen in the ground. This carbon will, sooner or later, be released into the atmosphere, exacerbating the problem unless something unforeseen happens.

Oh no, Senator Inhofe, there is no climate change. It's all a hoax by the scientists just as you claim. As Forest Gump might say, I'm not a smart man Jenny, but when I see that in the 1850's, Glacier N.P. had over 150 glaciers and only 26 today and expected to disappear completely by 2030, I say hmm, something must be going on. When I take a tour of Glacier Bay and see photos taken by early explorers such as John Muir and see how the edges of those glaciers have drastically retreated by miles and miles, I say why? There has to be a reason. Granted, some of it may be cyclic but surely, some is due to the atmosphere where we dump tons and tons of contaminants every day. Whatever the cause, to deny that nothing is happening, to say that it's a hoax, to me, borders on dementia.

So go ahead, Sen. Inhofe, keep on airing those folksy campaign commercials where you walk through the fields of Oklahoma in your shiny new denim work shirt as America The Beautiful plays in the background, tell us once again how you are right and the best scientific minds of America are full of crap. The truly pathetic part is, you'll win the election in another landslide just as you always do.

Me? I'm voting for the bears.

2 comments:

  1. Hell Yeah! Well said. While I don't think our dependence on oil for a multitude of products will ever cease, I wish the oil companies could conceive of putting a portion of their profits into the exploration of alternative energy sources instead of their CEO's pockets! Might not help the world ecology, but would be a good start for the USA to set an example.

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  2. I love you, man! I thought I was the only Okie who disdained Inhofe's persona. I'm so thankful there are those like you who share and, more importantly, can express in writing with clear legitimacy the same feelings and concerns I have regarding this very issue.

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