Three oil companies have canceled their leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling in the refuge has long been a controversial issue, as the 19.5-million-acre wilderness area is home to 45 species of mammals including polar bears, bowhead whales and caribou and considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people, according to the Gwich’in Steering […]
Tag: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Keep polar bears and their extensive range safe from oil drilling
Americans love their polar bears. The largest land carnivores in the world, these massive, powerful beasts are fierce, fearless and very much threatened. It’s the threatened aspect of their story that makes our hearts go out to them, especially as they struggle to survive in a rapidly warming arctic. The Southern Beaufort Sea population of […]
Biden Administration Proposes to Allow Oil Companies to Disturb Polar Bears, Walruses in Alaska’s Arctic
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Biden administration issued a proposed rule today allowing oil companies operating in the Beaufort Sea and Western Arctic to harass polar bears and Pacific walruses when drilling or searching for oil for the next five years. “It’s maddening to see the Biden administration allowing oil companies to continue their noisy, harmful onslaught […]
Arctic biodiversity at risk as world overshoots climate planetary boundary
Today, bowhead whales still transit the fringes of Arctic waters. Polar bears hunt blubbery ringed seals from rafts of ice. And ivory gulls ride gale force winds, plucking juvenile polar cod from the roiling sea. But for how much longer? Despite more than a century of scientific observation, the Central Arctic Ocean remains one of […]
America’s last wilderness is about to go to the highest bidder for oil drilling
Those who argue for oil drilling in the Arctic national wildlife refuge, a place of stunning wild beauty in far north-east Alaska, seldom call it what it is – a refuge. Instead, they reduce it to an acronym: ANWR. They talk about “opening it up”, as if it is closed. It’s not. It is public land. […]
Petition: Tell Congress to Restore Protections for Tongass National Forest
It’s no secret that the Trump administration wasn’t kind to the environment. During his time as president, Trump has reversed 100 environmental rules, suspended the enforcement of environmental regulations during coronavirus, and opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Even though he doesn’t have much time left in office, Trump is still […]
Petition: In a Last Ditch Effort to Destroy Wildlife Trump Sets Up Arctic Drilling
In a last-ditch effort to destroy wildlife and provide a gift to the fossil fuel industry, President Trump and his administration began a last-minute leasing process for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). While it’s unclear if the process can be completed in the remaining two months Trump has in […]
POLL: Should the Trump Administration be allowed to auction leases in the Arctic refuge to the oil and gas industry?
In a last-ditch attempt to make good on promises to the oil and gas industry, the Trump administration is rushing to formalize plans to drill for oil in the Arctic national wildlife refuge before Joe Biden takes office. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management initiated the process with a formal “call for nominations”, inviting […]