ANWR Oil

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) simply known as the Artic refuge is the largest national wildlife refuge of the United States of America, spanning an area of more than 77,000 km2. It is situated in the north eastern potion of Alaska. ANWR was first established as a protected area in 1960, and in 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed by Congress and the President Carter administration declaring it as a Refuge. Today it is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Artic Refuge holds a great ecological value because, in comparison to the rest of the Arctic Circle, ANWR is incredibly rich in flora and fauna. ANWR shows a diverse geography ranging from salt marshes, lagoons and river deltas to hills, lakes, rivers, tundra vegetation and Taiga forests. Some of the species found in ANWR include water birds like swans, sea ducks and other shore birds, golden eagles, grizzly and black bears, as well as polar bears and seals. All these make ANWR a nature lover’s Winter Wonderland.

But Nature is not the only reason why ANWR is important to the US as well as the rest of the world: The area is rich in petroleum oil reservoirs! The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimate of 1998 approximated the average volume of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil to be a staggering 10.4 billion barrels. However, ANWR Oil has led to more than 30 years of political debate and controversy in the US. The reason why the drilling for ANWR Oil has led to so many speculations is because of the effect drilling will have on the global oil market, and also, more importantly, on the wildlife of ANWR.

It is assumed that drilling for ANWR Oil could

• Bring oil prices so far down that drilling will no longer be economical
• Destroy the natural wildlife of ANWR

The topic of ANWR Oil was raised during the 2009 presidential elections, where both candidates, Barak Obama and Senator McCain, strongly opposed the idea because of the potential damage it will do to the protected wildlife and because ANWR Oil processes little strength to grant US energy security. Senator McCain even referred to ANWR as “one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world”. The Alaska Inter Tribal Council, representing more than 200 Native Alaskan tribes, also opposes drilling or any other development in ANWR.