Market Farming

[Aozotorp AT aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/01 8:53:01 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
kancell AT goodearthgardens.com writes:

<< > From: "Dawn M. Ripley" <ripley AT iglou.com>
 
 > (If I offend with this posting, then please accept my apology in advance
 
     <snip>
 
 > The bill, S.1438, will be debated on and voted on TOMORROW, September 23;
 It
 > is likely that it will pass as a result of our unchecked preparations for
 war.
 
 There is probably only one senator Barbara Lee from the Berkley CA. area
 that will vote against anything having to do with our preparations for war.
 
 Brief History of the Refuge
 Prior to 1968, Alaska's North Slope was the largest intact wilderness area
 in the United States. In the late 1950s, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William
 O. Douglas visited northeast Alaska at the invitation of the well-known
 Alaskan naturalists Olaus and Margaret Murie. Impressed with the grandeur of
 the region, he, together with the Murie's, persuaded then-President
 Eisenhower to set aside 8 million acres as an Arctic Wildlife Range. This
 Act brought into being the first legislation protecting the Porcupine
 Caribou Herd's most important habitat - the Coastal Plain calving ground.
 Approximately a decade later in 1968, the Atlantic Richfield Oil Company
 discovered the largest oil field in North American history at Prudhoe Bay.
 In 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act [ANILCA] was
 passed, expanding the Range to 19 million acres and renaming it the Arctic
 National Wildlife Refuge. The 1.5 million acre Coastal Plain was excluded
 from wilderness protection pending study of the area's potential petroleum
 reserves. This Act carried special importance in that it included the
 concept that 'national-interest lands,' i.e., wilderness lands, in the state
 could be set aside for the interest of American's as a whole. The result
 preserved an even greater portion of the Porcupine Caribou Herd's range, but
 continued to leave vulnerable the herd's calving grounds.
 
 To get a perspective: Alaska has a population about the size of the nation's
 capital. But you could squeeze California into Alaska almost four times.
 Those who fear that Alaska is neglected in the matter of federal wildlife
 preservation are reminded that 60 percent of the official wilderness areas
 of the United States are in Alaska. ANWR is way over on the northeastern
 side of the state, about the size of South Carolina. What the oil industry
 is asking for is access to 2,000 acres, an area no bigger than Dulles
 Airport. "This footprint would be 50 times smaller than the Montana ranch
 owned by Ted Turner, who helps bankroll efforts to keep ANWR off-limits."
 
 On April 21, 1987, Don Hodel, then Secretary of the Interior, issued the
 "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska, Coastal Plain Resource Assessment,"
 more commonly referred to as the "1002 Report." The report reviewed the
 geology and resource potential of the ANWR coastal plain, and concluded that
 "the 1002 area has a very significant potential to contribute to the
 national need for oil."
 
 The coastal plain area is approximately 70 miles from the Trans-Alaskan
 Pipeline
 
 About Prudhoe Bay and the TransAlaska Pipeline
 In one important government study, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
 compared predictions about the development of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and
 TransAlaska pipeline with what actually transpired in terms of environmental
 effects and impacts on wildlife. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service report
 concluded that fish and wildlife habitat losses resulting from construction
 and operation of the pipeline system and Prudhoe Bay oilfields had been

 greatly underestimated in the original Environmental Impact Statement.
 
 http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/ANWR/anwrusf&wreport.html
 
 Since the 80's we now have better and cleaner ways to go after the resources
 below the surface.
  >>

Of  course Conservation would save several ANWR fields per year = But that is 
not our game!