Somewhere in Washington last week, "Big Oil" lobbyists passed champagne and pats on the back as the United States Minerals Management Service counted up the $2.66 billion rolling in from the sale of oil rights in the Chukchi Sea, the shallow body of water separating Alaska from Russia.
As rising fuel prices whet energy appetites and rising temperatures melt away ice barriers, Arctic oil prospects have gained considerable appeal. After years of debate over environmental concerns surrounding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the government skirted the issue by inviting oil companies to the adjacent Chukchi Sea, instead.
It's a case of frying pan to fire. Just ask the native peoples who have lived in the region for thousands of years, like the villagers of Point Hope, whose tiny spit of land may be the oldest continuously settled spot in North America. Because the climate is too harsh for agriculture, the community supports itself through hunting and gathering, indebted to the sea around it for an annual bounty of fish, seal and whale. Climate change makes traditional life a greater struggle with every passing year.
Big Oil could abruptly compound their troubles. As companies move heavy equipment - think icebreaker ships plowing through polar bear hunting grounds and drilling ships with oil derricks taller than the Statue of Liberty - into the region, wildlife will move out. Oily films will coat the sea, accumulated over hundreds of minor yet unavoidable accidents. And "seismic prospecting," which sends intense pulses of noise down to the sea floor to locate oil-bearing rocks, will deafen marine life. Incidentally, Shell Oil began seismic testing last year: Evidently, though experts predict that it will take at least 10 years to locate and begin pumping oil, the company couldn't wait mere months for an environmental impact assessment to be made.
We are not talking simply of extracting necessary fuel supplies from a barren wasteland. No, we are threatening irreversible harm to a pristine area that provides sanctuary to a tenth of the world's polar bears and shelters the migratory path of the endangered bowhead whale.
Point Hope's residents have been trying to warn us for years. Fortunately, they are an experienced bunch. Fifty years ago, they stopped "Project Chariot," a plan to demonstrate the "peaceful use of nuclear weapons" by blasting a useless harbor into the coastline only 35 miles from the village. Of course, it took Point Hopers a full two years to halt the hare-brained scheme, which would have spread nuclear fallout across the Arctic, hopelessly contaminating the environment for millennia to come. (Imagine, by contrast, what would happen if the citizens of New York City were told of a similar plan to "improve" Raritan Bay. I think two minutes might be sufficient time to hear the roar of rejection all the way in the Chukchi Sea.)
Small groups with tinier budgets are simply easier to ignore. So when Point Hopers sued to stop Chukchi Sea oil rights from being sold, and when conservation groups tried to delay the sale until polar bears could be listed as endangered, the government and its agencies simply brushed them aside. Protests lodged in Alaska carry little weight against the millions that Big Oil invests in Washington to ensure its wishes are always granted. During the 2006 election cycle, the oil and gas industry contributed more than $20 million to campaigns (82 percent went to Republican candidates), and it's already spent almost half that amount in preparation for 2008.
The picture being painted is pretty simple: Everyone knows carbon emissions speed global warming. Everyone knows we should turn to sustainable energy sources. But as long as Big Oil foots the political bills, the government will keep weighing in on its side.
The same drama plays out hundreds of times in different places and at different scales. Globally, the consequences of climate change are disproportionately borne by poorer nations. U.S. Hummers melt polar ice caps and displace millions of Bangladeshis on a low-lying coastal plain. The happy isles of Vanuatu shrink in size and number.
Within our own nation, the poor and underrepresented get shorted every day. Victims of Hurricane Katrina with nowhere else to go wound up in trailers contaminated with formaldehyde. Though the Federal Emergency Management Agency was aware of the problem, it knowingly risked the health of people who had no options and no voice.
Throughout the country, lower-income populations frequently live in riskier areas, often because proximity to factories and waste sites lowers property values. More frightening, though, is our tendency to take advantage of minority groups, as by stashing nuclear waste on Native American reservations. We're also not afraid to carve into the unpopulated and therefore unguarded. While the hunt for oil in the Arctic draws national press coverage, a similar situation in Antarctica - where nations are quietly staking their claims to offshore resources - slips under the radar.
Sometimes, though, watchful eyes catch on. There are locals on surfboards blocking harbors in Hawaii, where the Superferry threatens a priceless ecosystem. There are non-profit groups like the Edison Wetlands Association, which insists on pollution reduction in New Jersey. And there are the infamous "tree-sitters," Berkeley students who have taken up residence in an oak grove to fight the Division I Athletics machine. (A certain thousand Rutgers students might be interested in how they're blocking the University's planned $125 million training facility - part of an upgrade to its football stadium.)
In every case, the individual is up against a formidable threat. The victories tend to go to the large and wealthy corporations, which can outspend and outlast their opponents. And the law of inertia seems to favor politicians with ears only for their industry interests.
What's a subsistent Point Hope fisherman to do?
He hasn't got the money to compete, but at least he has a voice. Like all good activists, the people of Point Hope just won't shut up. And because they won't, people across the country will sit up and take notice. Maybe they will call a friend, draft a letter or write a column.
As powerful as money is, the person-to-person connection is greater. Shell Oil can't pay you enough to forget the words of your best friend. Keep your ears perked and your mind open, and in this country, let there be environmental justice for all.
Holly Moeller is a Rutgers College senior majoring in chemistry and biology. She welcomes feedback at hmoeller@eden.rutgers.edu. Her column "Seeing Green" runs on alternate Mondays.
