Defecating in our Nest

By David Model

The battleground for defense of the environment is shrinking at an alarming rate.  Even seemingly untouchable protected areas of our increasingly fouled planet has yielded to the corporate-owned politicians who are more concerned about winning the next election than the health of the planet.

The Artic National Wildlife Refuge, protected under a Canadian/American agreement signed in 1987 is now one step closer to becoming a holy temple of oil rigs.  It is home to 180 bird species, 36 species of land mammals, nine marine mammal coastal species and 36 fish species and supports the greatest variety of plant and animal life of any park or refuge in the Artic.

Destroying the Refuge for 16 months of oil which would not flow for ten years and will decrease the price of oil by one cent twenty years from now, is the pinnacle of greed, short-sightedness and just plain ignorance.

If people don't wake up soon, our politicians will have succeeded in flooding coastal cities, converting farmland into desert,depleting most fish stocks in the oceans, draining underwater lakes needed for irrigation and toxifying our water, air and food.  But of course, they will have won another term in office.  Well one can hope that they are the ones forced to address these problems and not their children.

Fri Nov 4th, 2005 at 11:42:26 AM EDT :: Environment