by Robin Hussey

Created on: February 04, 2009

Drilling for oil?

The government should most decidedly NOT drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In fact the government should not drill for oil anywhere. While there are many important reasons why the wildlife should be protected, and the natural beauty of the Arctic should be preserved this is not the paramount issue. The issue is why are we drilling for oil at all?

Alternative Energy

Oil is a non-renewable energy source. The government should be engaged in ending the use of all non renewable energies, and advancing the development of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy such as: Biofuels, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro-power, Solar power, Tidal power, Wave power , and Wind power are the key to moving our country, and planet to the fuel systems of the twenty first century and away from the energy of the twentieth century. The reasons for this move are twofold.

We need to be energy independent.
We need to protect ourselves from the possible damaging effects of CO2 emissions increasing global warming.

Energy Independence

There has been off and on talk of the importance of energy independence in America since the Arab oil embargo in 1973, but there has never been any serious action taking to make it happen. This is probably because the economy has been controlled by the oil companies for the last 35 years (or longer). These companies have little interest encouraging the use of anything but there products. They have been making record profits for their product, and no one has done anything to regulate their industry.

Global Warming

There are many who still debate the reason for global warming, however I do not believe anyone debates that it is occurring. Whether or not it is an effect of man made CO2 emissions or not can we all agree that the CO2 emissions are not at this point helping? We can argue all day whether Global Warming is caused by man, the natural cycles of the earth, or an over activity sun, but in the end we all know that CO2 levels increasing instead of decreasing are not going to improve the conditions. In order to protect ourselves we need to be developing renewable energies that do not produce emissions that contribute to poisoning the planet.

In summary no, drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge does not seem like a prudent move. Destroying more of the planet to feed our addiction to oil does not seem prudent at all.

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