This is also, clearly, Bush's fault.

 

oh for crying out loud, that is obsurd. we are talking about fragile eco systems that will be so viciously disrupted. do you think some pipe line worker gives two shits about the area in and around where he/she is working? those people arent exactly "careful" with the environment. so by your view, we should not preserve any land on the god forsaken planet? just rape it untill it is completely fubar? thats twisted man.

 

i bet bush had it shredded into sheets so he could wipe his ass with it, whilst ridding of evidence.

 

Wait... Nobody thought to copy the map? What....Dumbasses! And they hid an important map behind some filing cabinet? What.......Dumbasses!

 

Earth has lasted through the ice age. Earth has lasted through a giant meteor crashing into it and leaving it in darkness for years. Earth has lasted billions of years of evolution and bad things happening. Earth has lasted through dinosaurs, Hitler, Saddam, and even the San Diego Padres.

Earth won't mind if we take some oil, it'll take some time, but it'll rebuild itself just fine. Only problem is people who care too much. Earth doesn't care. People taking the oil don't care. People using the oil don't care. Dogs don't care. The only party that cares, is those that care too much.

I'm not saying it's cool to go destroy earth, cause I'm sure we could. But this is something so small in the grand scheme of earth and it's entire existence, it's like a bit of dust falling onto your shoulder and then beeing blown away with the slightest air movement. You'd never even notice it.

 

its still theft, conspiricy, and just plain wrong.

 

i would notice if yosemite went "missing" so no, i dont agree with you. i dont want you to take me the wrong way though dude, i just have strong feelings about nature so sometimes i get pissed. aside from the fact they are going to drill, i think its pretty damn shady that those bastards had to cheat to win. what happend to democracy? guess its a lost hope in america.

 

The problem is that a lot of this land is covered by permafrost, does not contain that much oil, would take about 15 years to develop and start refining, and in the end, is more of an attempt to crack open a protected land to set a precident for opening other protected lands.


I wont even get into the can of worms that is development on permafrost. Suffice to say that it's very, very delicate stuff. In natural environments, is a very resilient type of land, but when devolpment takes place around it, stands up like a sandcastle against a water gun. The environmental implications of permafrost destruction goes far beyond natural aethetics. Permafrost traps many compounds that are popularly referred to as greenhouse gasses. Lots and lots. I really, really would prefer if those gasses stay trapped.



And I give lots of thought into those other lands. Read up on the land depression that's occouring in the midwest due to the depletion of the great plains water table. If it sinks too far, farming in that area could be significantly impacted for basically the rest of civilization... I'm not BSing either...

 

Well, the Earth will survive because it's basically a giant rock floating in space. Us, on the other hand, will not if we don't put some serious forethought into where we are going (see my prior post about the possible dangers of permafrost reduction). I say it's high-time we start thinking about what's going to happen 50 years down the road, as opposed to what will happen next month...

 

yeah, we arent looking ahead enough. its sad.