Posted on 12/03/2018 1:40:01 PM PST by reaganaut1
“I’m sure PLENTY of protective laws are put in place already.”
Yes sir, there are LOTS of laws regarding protecting the Alaskan tundra, which is basically unusable in summer due to bogs/mosquitoes of death!
Worked 3 winters on North Slope, IF a single drop of oil from your vehicle hits the ground/snow, it has to be cleared, bagged and then officially reported.
I used to work at Prudhoe Bay. I had a discussion with a Federal biologist one day. He told me if you ground up all of the caribou on the North Slope and made a sphere it would be “this big” holding his hands about 12” apart. “If you ground up all of the mosquitoes on the North Slope and made a sphere it would be this big” holding his hands out as far as his arms would reach. That was just amazing to ponder.
Drilling technology is light years ahead of where it was when I started working at Prudhoe Bay in 1976. Gone are the huge gravel pads with vertical wells into the reservoir. Now more wells can be drilled using top-drive directional rigs from much smaller areas than ever before. Building infrastructure in the Arctic is crazy expensive so minimizing the amount needed is the goal.
Back in the 1980’s a “tight well” was directionally drilled from the village of Kaktovik which is just offshore of ANWR. I knew the “company man” who was in charge of that job. All he would say about it was “amazing”. There’s going to be BIG oil there.
“... literally caribou gather around it today.”
I once descended the front steps of the camp at the Milne Point oilfield one day in July when the central Arctic caribou herd was migrating through the area. Most of the buildings on the North Slope are built on pilings so that the snow doesn’t pile up when the wind blows (and also to protect the permafrost from the heat of the buildings). The hairs on the back of my neck started to tingle. I looked behind me and there must have been 200 caribou bedded down under the building chewing cud and staring at me. It was a hot sunny day and they were enjoying some shade for probably the first time in their miserable existence. The building probably afforded them some slight protections from the clouds of mosquitoes and bot flies too.
I once found piles of musk ox fur at the bases of some plastic road markers that they had been rubbing on. First time they ever encountered anything taller than 6” on the tundra and what do they do? Scratch themselves just like any barnyard animal would do.
These experiences convinced me that wild animals are much smarter and more adaptable to changing conditions than ANY freakin’ agenda-driven leftard enviro-whacko.
Yep - as soon as these folks start razing their own homes to return their own land to a “pristine” condition, I’ll listen to what they say....
A lack of valid guilt and being controlled by false guilt is the result of forsaking the God of the Bible.
Did you leave out "not" from your last sentence? Or the sarcasm tag?
What emotion are they trying to gen up with THAT little tidbit of 'info'?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.