By Katherine Tamburrano, Alliance Intern from the University of Texas at Austin 27’
In a moment where renewables are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels and reducing our carbon footprint, the Trump administration is going the wrong direction. They’re attempting to halt them and regress previous progress by dramatically boosting oil production through their “drill baby drill” policy, including a proposed plan to sell off public lands of Alaska in the northern Arctic.
Trump’s plan would allow the government to hold “21 sales of leases through 2031 off the coast of Alaska, the Arctic Coastal Plain, and in an isolated region stretching more than 200 miles offshore that is home to polar bears, bowhead whales, ice seals, walruses and other wildlife,” according to the New York Times.
These remote Arctic lands are so pristine that these lands have never seen industrialization, and no company has ever drilled for oil in the “icy high Arctic,” so it would require development of the precious lands to implement the oil infrastructure.
Not only would the development of the land and coastal waters destroy ecosystems, including those for endangered species like caribou, wolverines, and migratory birds, but it would also open the door for dangerous impacts from fossil fuel drilling, such as potential spills, water and air pollution, and of course greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change.
However, the Arctic is more prone to and has been feeling the effects of climate change for years. It is warming 3-5 times faster than the rest of the planet. The rapid rise in temperatures produce dangerous consequences such as permafrost thaw, rising sea levels, the loss of sea ice, and coastal erosion, all of which are harming Alaska communities and accelerating the climate crisis.
As the Arctic is suffering from climate change due to our global emissions, expanded drilling will only make it worse. This threat of industrialization and oil development would be Trump’s way of further destroying the pristine lands and ecosystems of the Arctic and kicking them while they’re down.
If Trump’s plan to drill in the Arctic were to go through, it would cause irreparable harm to wildlife, birds, fish, and people who depend on this habitat. Please join the Alliance in signing this Earth Justice letter to Congress demanding our public lands belong to us and not fossil fuel companies and that we must protect them to protect the Arctic and American people.