Goodbye Mother Earth

On March 16th, 2005, the US Senate voted 51 to 49 to open The Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling. Three Democratic Senators joined with Republicans to allow the ravaging of America’s most pristine wilderness. The drill bits have won -again. In 1961 US President Dwight Eisenhower put aside the 19 million acre refuge. It is home to 45 types of land and marine mammals, including moose, grizzly and polar bears, caribou, wolves, musk oxen, as well as habitat to some 180 species of birds. Irreversible environmental destruction and the endangerment of wildlife is the price America will pay for its oil addiction. A rational program of conservation combined with restricting the auto industry’s propensity to build gas guzzling cars was the way forward to a sustainable economy and the preservation of the environment. Instead, big oil will be permitted to plunder America’s natural treasures for the sake of a few drops of black gold. It is a shameful day… one we will long regret.