Arctic Wonderland Under Attack

What a disturbing letter I received — just in time for the holiday season!

When I saw it was from The Wilderness Society, I correctly guessed this letter would be about another annual membership/donor drive. It was. It was also about something much worse: the impending destruction of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska — “America’s last untouched wilderness.”

But wait.

Isn’t this national treasure “essential to the integrity of our existence on this planet?” Isn’t it the only place in America where all three species of native bears live and wild musk oxen roam free? Isn’t it also where almost 200,000 caribou thrive and 200 species of birds from all over the USA spend their summers? Well, yeah. It is. But get ready to kiss that eco-system goodbye for good.

Thanks to the sneakiness of The Great Leader and his Spaced-out GOP Forces in Congress, this pristine refuge will soon be gone for good. Why? Here’s how The Wilderness Society explained it in the letter — and they expressed it a lot more succinctly and eloquently than Trump’s tweets ever could:

“…In 1947, the acclaimed photographer Ansel Adams took a six-week journey through the region with his son and wrote, ‘The quality of place, the reaction to immediate contact with earth…is essential to the integrity of our existence on this planet.’

Adams probably believed the timeless beauty of the Arctic would be here forever — for life to be sustained, and for generations of Americans to visit and be inspired.

HE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED THAT, IN 2018, WE WOULD BE AT RISK OF DESTROYING PARADISE.

The sweeping tax reform bill that was signed into law at the end of 2017 included a provision that permits oil and gas drilling in one of the most pristine wildlife sanctuaries on Earth — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

If the White House and Congress can approve destructive roads, infrastructure and pollution that accompany drilling in this fragile Arctic paradise — putting wildlife and wilderness at permanent risk of destruction — are any public lands in America safe?

Our fight to protect the Arctic Refuge has lasted for 65 years, and it’s far from over. We won’t let oil-obsessed politicians get away with carving up this special landscape with roads, pipelines and well pads…”

Good luck with that one, guys.

The only “wilderness” Trump and his Drill-Baby-Drill buddies care about is on a can of pie filling. Remember, this Great Leader who currently occupies the White House has gone on record with comments like, “The oil is there for the taking. We just have to take it.” So that’s exactly what Big Oil and Gas are currently trying to do with our public lands.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time sneaky legislators attached a non-related “rider” to a bill that would easily get enacted into law. But launching a vendetta against our national resources via a big tax reform bill? Who knew? I sure didn’t. Neither did a lot of other environmentalists until it was too late. No wonder it’s called a “rider.” Like a barnacle inconspicuously attaching itself to a whale, this eco-killer secretly hitched a ride on a major tax overhaul.

One way to save this Arctic wilderness now might be to lobby Congress to overturn the provision that permits gas and oil drilling there. Another way might be to challenge this provision in Court. Either way, it’s going to be a long, expensive, uphill battle. That’s why all these pro-conservation organizations keep asking for money.

Over the years, I’ve had memberships in The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, World Wildlife Fund, The Sierra Club, and Earthjustice. (I still belong to the latter two.)

I may not be able to save the planet by myself, but I can help some other groups to at least try before it’s too late. If things keep going at this rate, the only way we’ll be able to see polar bears will be in Coca-Cola commercials. That’s pretty sad.

Thank God there are organizations out there who can provide some solutions and info before Mother Earth enters another great extinction. To The Wilderness Society, I can only offer my thanks…and hope that others will give the gift of a membership donation. At least that way, we’ll be able to say we tried to do something about this impending ecological disaster…