Drilling in Alaska- good or bad?

Very true, the rig would be a much smaller footprint and there would be more traffic at a festival. But Woodstock only lasted three days.

 

FYI most of Alaska is very arrid, almost as dry as a desert.

What makes you think that damaging any ice present wouldn't be a problem in and of itself? ANWAR is in the northernmost part of Alaska, near the polar icecap, so I hope it won't melt if, indeed, it is covered in ice. Mess around with the icecap too much and a great many of us are going to have to switch to houseboats or head for the already crowded hills.

Again, is the benefit worth the risk?

But don't ask me. Ask the oilmen. ~what do you think they'll say?~


And we still remain oil junkies.

 

Ok.. let me try once again to explain something...

DO YOU UNDERSTAND that Oil has NOTHING to do with deforestation.
It has NOTHING to do with melting polar ice-caps.
It is a VERTICAL situation UNDERNEATH the Earth.

This has virtually NOTHING to do with anything on the surface of the Earth, Alaska or the tiny tiny remote little Rig sitting on top of some ice.

I'm willing to bet you millions in Oil money that if you were placed within ONE MILE of the site you would have a nearly impossible time finding it, where it was and any sign of its being there.

Will future discoveries find removing oil from the ground is threatening to the surface?
Maybe?!

In the mean-time we know that completely misaligned comparisons are deterimental to the mental evironment.

Like comparing massive deforestation of the USA to A pipe going into a hole.

 

Yep, your right, I'm slow. I thought that I might be able to open your eyes a little wider. I should have gotten the message earlier. You just aren't able to think outside your box, to see larger issues.

I'm gone.

 

First off, how many of you have actually been to alaska? I have, twice in fact. IT is hands down the most beautiful place on earth in my opinion. One of the many beauty's of alaska is that it has remained relatively untouched. Only something like 3 percent of the entire state is occupied. And for good reason! Its god's country, and should be LEFT ALONE.
If you allow them to drill in alaska now, then your just laying the ground work for whatever they want to do in the future. It starts with a little drilling here and there, a little land gets destroyed, a few animals die. Drill a little more, develope more land, kill more animals. Then they'll decide to drill for natural gas, more wildlife wiped out. "hey i got a great idea, lets knock down all those trees and build a nuclear power plant, won't that be fun?"
THey already have a pipeline running through the state and when it leaks (and yes it does leak) it takes days, sometimes weeks to find it and then repair it. Mean while it pours out and damages the envirnment. And why does it damage the plants and animals???? Because its NOT MEANT TO BE THERE!

 

For those who did not notice ...

I started out making the premise clear.
Everything is 'Harming the evironment'.

Woodstock harmed the environment.
Heck.. the farmers before Woodstock 'harmed the natural environment' when they plowed it all down for a farm!

The parts that make up your computer were drilled, dug and siphoned from the earth.

So too - any industry can be called 'unnatural'.

Whats happening here is that we are living in a bizarre world that runs on oil.
Its all good and well to 'wishlist' that there were never anymore trucks and oil Rigs in Alaska (which already has MASSIVE amounts of industry)
..however...
Other countries will be delighted to keep producing oil and then hanging it over YOUR head.
In Fact... just recently they are taking lots of extra American money away from you.

Alaska Oil Reserve is possibly one of the best ways for the 'free world' to obtain its own energy needs.

Compared to almost anything else (Building subdivisions, forestry, or the environmental damage being caused by hundreds of thousands of Rigs all over the world) - The Alaska project is relatively clean efficient and environmentaly friendlier.

Some people here need to get things straight and look 'inside the box' once in a while.
This is not some mythical 'sprawling land destruction' that their televisions have been telling them it is.

 

Yes everything is harming the enviornment, but why further the process along??
Drilling of any sort would damage one of the last great wilderness on the continent!

Big oil likes big government doling out rights to drill on land that big oil doesn't have to buy, maintain, or give a damn about since they don't have to bother reselling it.

Even though we have the technology to make vehicles run off water, but the hell with that, lets keep destroying, seems to be the only thing we are good at.

So lets sit back and allow the government to program us into thinking that its needed.......
*runs off to be a good little republican*

 

If you think this has anything to do with being a Republican, Conservative, Christian, Liberal or Union then you are more naive about the world than I ever imagined.

BTW.. Its all good and well for you to be 'against' big oil companies but i will bet anything you are more than happy to live in the economy around you.

Its not 'magic' that you have all this power and choice you know.

As for water-powered cars and alternatives. Yep.. I have no doubt they exist.
The problem is this:
The day a 'free' replacement to Oil ever gets in the hands of the public ... there will be full-scale WW3 and a world so upset that you wont even know what happened until the smoke clears.

Its a whole planet 'jacked up' on a fake controlled economy and 'reality' and there are so many plates spinning that any change like that will have it crashing down on everyones head.

Sad aint it

 

Brocktoon, you do have some good points regarding the oil industry in Alaska. Have you been to Prudhoe Bay? Newer technology has reduced the impact oil production has on the environment substantially and yes there is quite a bit of myth with the whole thing. Oil production is not devastating Alaska as some claim.

If drilling ANWR would solve our energy and oil troubles I think it could be produced without destroying the arctic, but as the amount of oil in ANWR is really just a drop in the bucket I say leave it be. Drilling and production will still have an impact be it less than is often said.

As was already said we need to reduce our oil dependency and change the way we live.

Daydreamer, Alaskans are the last ones to really ask about ANWR. Most are really pro oil, (we get a couple of grand a year from oil dividends just to live here), and will probably say something like "What do a bunch of greenie outsiders know about oil in Alaska anyway"

DharmaBum, with a statement like that I do hope you are living as I with no grid power and the ability to actually provide most needs without commercial power and fossil fuels.

I mean really......yes American society really does need power to survive. Flick off the breaker of any U.S. home and you cannot survive for long. Most heat requires power even if its oil, water does not pressurize itself, many have electric stoves and you have no way to refrigerate fresh foods. Let's turn off the power to say San Francisco and see what happens......

 

Freeinalaska actually stole the words out of my mouth I had a brother who lived in alaska and still goes every so often so that he can receive his check for "living" there. Most actual alaskans that I have talked to like oil. I have personally not been to alaska but my brother and dad have and they have actually been to the oil pipeline and say that they saw animals(Freeinalaska's picture proves this) As to my first post it will initialy scare the animals, and yes maybe a few will die but guess what? Hundreds of Thousands of animals die on the roads we build every year and should we stop that? I doubt it cause otherwise you might not be able to get to your next woodstock I love this land and would stand up for it any day of the week, but I'd rather have a barren wasteland(where they drill it from) being drilled then my backyard here in texas where people actually live!

 

Don't get me wrong - I have been very critical of the way animals have been treated during a lot of the previous ways of Industry.

Truth is - no one gave a shit.

Now Im happy to see 'eyes on the riggers' when it comes to habitats and protecting herds of Caribou etc.

What does make me laugh are the naive suburbanites in the south who .. lol.. actually believe there is a fantasy land of chirpy birds and 'disneyesque' Caribou who are living wonderful peaceful lives .

Life can be downright BRUTAL for these creatures. You want to see some horrific scenes of death and starvation.. look no further than a bunch of Caribou trying to survive Alaska (or anywhere).

The bush (in Canada thats wilderness not a president) doesnt go a week without seeing animals viciously killed and eaten by others.
Animals burn to death in natural forest fires.
Animals starve to death all the time.
Animals fall into the ice and drown
Caribou can freeze to death

Please do not have some ridiculous notions of 'fun lovin' peaceful existence with no cares or worries 'until' some oil tanker hit one of them on the road.

All im asking for is some perspective here.
Caribou can go through a helluva lot worse than than being hit by the occasional truck.

(and no its not a good reason to put more trouble in their lives - but get the comparison and relativity in correct focus)

 

I believe it's more the symbolism of drilling in Alaska than anything else. The mere fact that we need to even consider drilling in Alaska is a sign that America's oil addiction has grown to monstrous proportions. While oil is used to power homes and buisnesses, cars... namely SUVs, are the main reason for oil consumption being so high. I'm tired of those pathetic little pricks who drive SUVs. Most SUV drivers are weak, pathetic people, and SUVs make them feel a little bit stronger. Point is, they should fix the loophole in the CAFE and make sUVs get a minimum of 78 mpg...

NO ONE NEEDS A SUV! FOR 90 YEARS SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE AUTOMOBILE, EVERYONE'S BEEN JUST FINE! SOCCER MOMS, GO BACK TO YOUR STATION WAGONS....5 foot tall men, START BUYING PORSCHES AGAIN

Oh, and what do I plan to drive when i am old enough? I'll have 3 vehicles: A Honda Civic hybrid (58 mpg), a Motorcycle (65 mpg) of some sort, and a scooter(80mpg).I would use the honda only if i needed to carry something or another person. For all trips amde solo, it'd be the motorcycle, and for all close trips, it'd be the scooter.
sorry for teh rant, but i f**king hate SUVs... I usually strive to hate nothignn and no one, but those things....





May every SUV owning person who doesn't need it....(only 3% of them ever go off road) die in a firey crash.

 

Dude, that's a Parks and Wildlife vehicle. Now some suburbanite mom driving her kids to soccer practice in a giant SUV at 12 mpg pisses me off as much as the next guy, but the vehicle in that photo is actually used for what it was meant for, going off road and carrying equipment and cargo.

As for oil, others have pointed it out, but pretty much all electricity sources are disasterous to the environment. Have you ever seen the mountains in Colorado that were cut in half to mine coal? Have you ever seen the countless dead fish washed up on the shore of an artificial lake created by an electric dam? Have you ever heard of Chernobyl? For that matter, have you ever seen a bird within a mile of a windmill generator field?

If we develop a way to create electricity from water fission it could drastically reduce the amount of water on the planet (when water evaporates it's still water, when it is fissioned it is just hydrogen and oxygen and will never be water again). Even solar power requires a huge area to be rendered environmentally useless to produce enough electricity.

The fact is that at this time our society REQUIRES oil to function, and we have to get it somewhere. We might as well get it at home instead of going to war to steal it from our neighbors, wherever it is drilled it will have the same negative impact on the environment, and when it is burned it will produce the same level of smog.

 

yeah, you can't really harp on people who own SUV's and big trucks out here, most of them are working vehicles that have to get people around. most of the people around here live out in the county, where the roads are dirt. you need four wheel drive and a lot of power for hauling. though i'm embarassed to say that my replacement vehicle (a great mileage little jeep) is not working properly and i have to drive a big truck, deisel. but with as little as i drive, a tank of gas lasts me a month, sometimes more.

 

Quote: Now some suburbanite mom driving her kids to soccer practice in a giant SUV at 12 mpg pisses me off as much as the next guy

You´ve decribed what it´s like around here to a T. The SUV became the new
mini van.


Quote: I love this land and would stand up for it any day of the week, but I'd rather have a barren wasteland(where they drill it from) being drilled then my backyard here in texas where people actually live!

Alaska is not a barren wasteland as many other users have pointed out. I´ve seen a lot of barren wasteland in Texas.

 

My concern is that if you allow them to drill for oil then you will open the doors to allow them to do as they please in the future.

Do we really need the oil that bad? When almost all the oil that is being pumped through the pipeline right now goes to asia anyway....

And yes i have LIVED in alaska, Fairbanks to be exact. MY father and sister STILL live there in the Chena river valley

 

The part in which I put

Quote: I love this land and would stand up for it any day of the week, but I'd rather have a barren wasteland(where they drill it from) being drilled then my backyard here in texas where people actually live!

I meant it as where there is only a barren wasteland! My dad owns(part owns actually) 7500 acres up in the area of unalaska and it is a deserted wasteland with almost nothing in all of those acres. Here when I live(hence why I put my backyard in texas, not in the west where there is nothing) there are hundreds of trees animals and such. Over in the west and south where there is nothing look around and there are alot of oil towers because of that reason alone...it is barren. If they wanted to plow through the middle of a forest in alaska of course I would say no, but the places they are drilling is not in a forest but instead in the middle of nowhere with almost no plant or animal activity. And yes sometimes there are some areas that do have activity but you can't always get what you want. Be that as it may though, I'll be the first person to agree with you that I would want them to just quit pumping oil and find different alternatives, unforunately we need it right now.

~Matt

 

There is some confusion I need to clear up.

Several people are suggesting Alaska's Oil Reserves (APRA i think this is called?) will 'touch' Alaska's otherwise 'Untouched' nature.

Ok folks, I hate to break it to you but there is MASS amounts of heavy industry in Alaska and all over Alaska.
Oil, Mining and forestry for three.

I have no idea where this rumour got started that Alaska is 'untouched' wilderness.
Like it or not - it has already been exploited plenty.

The particular site in question has not yet been drilled but niether is any location 'not yet' drilled.

Just wanted to clear that up

 

So sad I always pictured Alaska as the last frontier. I live in the desert so it is
vastly different place. My aunt lives ther part itme and she loves it. i can't bear thye thought that it is being destroyed by drilling maybe. I wish we would stop worrying about oil adn convert to a more futuristic fuel that will not harm the earth so much. Like hemp!