Oil Drilling in the Arctic

Pipelines and oil-drilling platforms will harm caribou, polar bears, and millions of migrating birds (Come on in.: 38). Whenever some country drills for oil it is more likely than not for that country to have an oil spill. Oil spills are deadly to animals, hard to clean up, and it takes the land thousands of years to recover. The United States has already had one major oil spill off the coast of Alaska in Prince William Sound. If another large oil spill occurred on the water it would have a substantial effect on whales and other marine wildlife (Experts say Alaska Oil Drilling Hurts Wildlife: 43). There are over 130 bird species that find breeding, nesting, or resting places on the coastal plain (Defenders of Wildlife).

The extremely cold temperatures makes it a difficult environment to survive in during the winter, and plants and animals have a hard time coping with any extra stresses and disturbances. More people moving to the tundra to work in the mines and oil rigs have created towns and more roads. Some animal's movements to traditional feeding and denning grounds have been disrupted by these obstacles. When they try to pass through a town they are often scared away or shot. With their feeding patterns disrupted, many polar bears have starved. The Alaskan oil pipeline was built across a caribou migration route. In some places the pipeline has been raised above the ground so the caribou can pass under it. Pesticides have been used to control the hordes of insects. Thousands of migrating birds come to the tundra because of the abundant insects. Through the food chain the pesticides reach many of the animals that live on the tundra.

In Alaska there are many different types of wildlife, some are dangerous and some aren’t. Some dangerous kinds of animals located in Alaska are deer,bears,elk,moose and ,polar bears.If you attempt to try and explore Alaska, you may want to be careful of you decide to explore. Up in the mountains is most likely where the bears live, because of some of them being empty it makes a perfect spot from them to hibernate. Elk,Moose, and deers most likely live in between the snow cover dead trees. Polar Bears live in the water either in a sea or a ocean. Animals can be anywhere, even if they aren’t supposed to be there.

One of these reasons is the climate change. Because of the increase in temperature, the arctic ice is shrinking. Greenhouse gases are the main cause for the melting ice which is getting smaller about ten percent every decade. The lack of ice is causing many animals to lose valuable land. Polar bears mainly live in Canada, but also live in Russia, Maritola, and Alaska. This land is melting and they are losing their habitats. While their name, Ursus Maritimus, means sea bear, and they can swim about six miles per hour for up to sixty miles, they do need to rest. Polar bears rely on ice caps to rest and to hunt on. Ice loss means longer distance they need to travel before resting and hunting. Ice is the primary way polar bears hunt, using openings in the ice to hunt seal. They wait for seals to come up for breath, and then dinner is served. However, without ice their method is useless. This causes

The polar bears biome is the arctic tundra it look’s like it’s an owl but it’s not i think The polar bear receives the most attention of all these animals, and it’s easy to see why.

The tundra is the lease populated biome on the Earth due to its extremely low temperatures and excessive amount of snow and ice. One group of people called The Inuit are brave enough to live on coastal areas of Arctic tundra including places like Canada, Alaska (USA), Siberia (Russia), and Greenland and within them even smaller groups are formed based on their location within the tundra. Some people share common ancestors but even if they do not most groups have similar ways of living in the Arctic. Inuit traditionally hunted for seals, whales, polar bears, caribou, birds and other animals from the ocean and the

The Arctic oil drilling industry provides promising aspects in terms of economic gains and energy independence. However, the negative effect from the industry should shift the country’s focus towards clean alternative energy. The large-scale human activities from the industry is causing environmental damage in the area, while the carbon emission and increase of soil acidity from the infrastructures in order to sustain the industry also lead to air and soil pollutions in the area that cause disappearance of many unique species. The Arctic oil drilling proves to be risky and possesses dangerous threats that outweigh the benefits. The government has taken the step to subsequently reduce the activity by the industry, which seen to be the beginning of a shift to a clean alternative energy.

Oil and gas drilling seems to be a dirty business. The reason I say this is because people don’t really think about what would happen to the wilderness when oil and gas drilling moves in. The First thing we tend to observe is the disruption of wildlife migration routes and habitats from the noise, pollution, traffic, and fences. Mammal migration is a really important factor for its survival. With all this fencing and infrastructure going on it will ultimately cut off their route at key passages, threatening their survival as a species. In addition, Wild mammals and birds can avoid noises to an extent, but studies show that these behaviors become habituated. This usually impacts the songbird communication in breeding and nesting season. Secondly, the oil spills that occur on both land and offshore drilling sites. Oil operations on land require drilling fluids that are injected into the wellbore to lubricate the drilling bit. These fluids are supposedly to be captured in the line pits for disposal, but most of the time they are

First, I’m going to start off by saying I have mixed emotions about this topic. I do believe that there are pros and cons to this situation both of which should be taken into consideration. However for the purpose of this topic I will be arguing against drilling for oil in the Arctic.

Polar bears mostly live in the costal ice or north pole Because of thick clear fur that protects it body from the extreme temperatures of the snow and the ice cold water. The polar bear is a carnivore that eats’ seals, walrus, seabird but humans and global warming are killing them. The polar bear run across the ice or put it head in a hold to get food for it babies or for itself to eat. When they make babies they put them in hole and when they grow up they can live up to 20-30 years in their life. But most of them are gone because of environmental problems and global warming because of us humans doing bad things to the world. So the area threaten animal which causes them to might go extinct which is bad for the animal.

In 1960 the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was established in northeastern Alaska, now comprising of 19.6 million acres of land in the most biologically diverse region of the Arctic. Currently, the “1002” area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is protected from development, yet as global energy demand increases, places once thought of as inaccessible, or too expensive to exploit are now at the forefront of plans for exploration. The Republican party of the United States hopes to reduce dependence on imported oil and views the ANWR as suitable oil

The oil problem has been caused by the mass use of the source throughout the entire world. The World is “Consuming 30 plus billion barrels a year of oil and is finding seven or eight billion barrels a year” (Kurt), and this state of affairs has been going on now for 20 or more years. We are using more oil than we are producing so we are eventually going to run out. We are using way more oil than we need to, we could be making products that use oil without having to use oil. It is estimated that “6,000 products are made from oil and gas” (Products Made from Oil and Gas). A few items such as mascara, contacts, and deodorant are all made with oil. The biggest thing, consuming the most oil is vehicles. “About 50% of the oil we use in a year is used by motorized vehicles”(American Fuels). We could prevent 25% of this just by using electric cars.

Polar bears also use the sea ice as a resting place or a place to give birth. As global warming is increasing, the sea ice is melting from being in a hot and rainy climate. Therefore, polar bears are having trouble locating food to eat. One of the main reasons why polar bears do not have the food necessary to satisfy could be because of the over population of polar bears during the hot climate. (Stirling & Parkinson, 2006) Granted that there is not much food for the bears, when there is food, most of them must fight over it because of its limited amounts. When polar bears cannot find any food near the sea ice, they are forced to look further in order to survive. If global warming worsens, it is possible that polar bears will go extinct. “Scientists predict that the polar bear population, currently 20,000 to 25,000, could disappear by the end of the century.” (Diane Cole, 2009) Although there are some lack of national and international policy agreements, global warming may affect not only wildlife but us humans as well. “The expert responses suggest polar bear population and range will undergo significant declines by 2050 under SRES A1B.” (O’Neill, Osborn, Hulme, Lorenzoni & Watkinson, 2008) A study was done to show empirical evidence about polar bear body mass and weight to see how long polar bears can survive without food. The study concluded that the earlier in the year that the climate gets hotter, the longer the polar bears suffer. (McCarthy, 2015)

Oil drove the industrial revolution and brought civilization a step forward, but so much money should not be spent on something that is quickly running out or that is doubling in price. Oil has brought civilization towards greatness, developed countries, and even brought them back from the brink of poverty. Society has lived off of fossil fuels for the past hundred years powering cities and driving it forward towards great innovations. Such as the car engine, electricity, the power of flight, and the power to globalize trade worldwide. With a growing dependence in oil and natural gas, the supply is quickly diminishing and prices are soaring causing countries to invest billions and create global environmental changes. A new form of energy

* Walruses, polar bears, seals and other marine mammals that rely on ice floes for resting, feeding and breeding will be particularly threatened.