Photo by Vladimir Gorbunov.

 The government’s decision to delay listing the polar bear as threatened is certainly getting a lot of press – and thankfully, the press is linking the polar bear to the government’s incomprehensible decision to move forward with oil and gas lease sales in the Chukchi Sea. 

Check out the following links for some great editorials on the subject: 

Regulatory Games and the Polar Bear (The New York Times) 

Polar Bears:  Stop Oil, Gas Leases (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Protecting Polar Bears (The Los Angeles Times) 

The Threatened Polar Bear (The Washington Post) 

Meanwhile, Congressman Ed Markey is holding a hearing about the polar bear and the Chukchi Lease Sale in the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.  The hearing is at 9:30 Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, January 17.  The panel will be broadcast over the internet for those interested:  It can be accessed by going tohttp://globalwarming.house.gov/home and clicking on the box next to the picture of Ed Markey on the left hand side.  The box reads “Next Hearing–Polar Bears on Thin Ice- Thurs. Jan. 17 at 9:30am” 

If anyone has trouble with that link they can also try here. 

Let’s hope that Minerals Management Service is paying attention and chooses to delay the Chukchi Lease Sales! 

Photo by Vladimir Gorbunov.

Welcome back to Pacific Environment’s blog in 2008.  Over the next year, check back to this blog to find interesting tidbits and news related to our work to protect the Pacific Rim environment! 

A couple of items caught my eye in the last couple of days.  First of all, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delayed its decision about whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.  Supposedly the delay is to allow the Service to consider new scientific studies.  Yet the studies – which demonstrate sea ice in the Arctic receding even more rapidly than originally thought – only confirm the critical need to act now. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service’s delay in making a decision now allows the Minerals Management Service to proceed unhindered with a proposed oil and gas lease sale in the Chukchi Sea in February.  Recent news articles suggest that both Exxon and Shell are interested in the lease sale.  Is it coincidence that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s delay allows the government to move forward with this lease, which will only increase the threats to the polar bears?  I think not. Click here to read a press release from our partners at Center for Biological Diversity or click here for an article that explains the connection between the polar bear delay and the Chukchi lease sale. 

We fiddle while the Arctic burns. 

Meanwhile, at least South Korea is taking some action.  Click here to learn that South Korea is taking action to ban single-hulled tankers by 2010, following its disastrous oil spill last month.  Wait, you say, weren’t single-hulled tankers banned after the Exxon Valdez?  No, unfortunately not.  The Valdez spill led to an international agreement to phase out single-hulled tankers by 2015.  Now, South Korea is making a commitment to moving up that timeline.  Sometimes it takes an accident like they experienced to force action.  We could learn something from Korea. 

Today brought yet another of the myriad of articles reporting record melting of sea ice in the Arctic: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/21/MNMISACP7.DTL 

The sea ice has melted to record lows below.  Our colleague Kassie Siegel over at Center for Biological Diversity says that it’s melted more this year than was originally projected for 2050.  This news comes just after scientists said that polar bears will largely be extinct by 2050: http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2571 

The Arctic, the air conditioner for the earth, is melting.  So far, what’s the response?  Let’s explore for more oil and gas in the Arctic.  Russia is laying claim to a large portion of the Arctic: http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKL2082113920070920, primarily for oil and gas development.  Or check out this map, which shows proposed and existing oil and gas leases in the Arctic, Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk, along with Russia’s territorial claims. 

Looks like we’re zoning the Arctic for oil and gas.  Ironic, isn’t it?  There are winners and losers in climate change, and the large oil companies will try to be winners.  I think a smarter way to go would be to push for an Arctic treaty to help protect the Arctic as we deal with climate change. 

Alaska glacier by Britt Constantine, mother and lifelong Alaskan.

I attended a fascinating conference yesterday about the global politics of climate change, put on by the World Affairs Council .  I spoke on a panel about how to engage the developing world.  This led to a healthy discussion about the need to engage the public in China and Russia in climate change events as well as our responsibilities to the communities of the Arctic that are feeling the brunt of climate change impacts.  I talked about the disconnect between climate change and our energy choices.  Why are we rushing ahead with oil and gas development in the Arctic when we know that this very development will fuel climate change impacts that will bear down on the Arctic? 

While sitting in the conference, I saw this news flash from the Anchorage Daily News (link:  Chukchi Sea Village empties as storm threatens).  The coastal Native village of Kivalina has been evacuated due to an approaching Arctic storm.  The article notes that Kivalina has lost more than 100 feet of coastline the last three years to waves and storm surges.  This is a community that is feeling the brunt of climate change impacts.  My thoughts are with the community.  I am thankful that most people have been evacuated and hope that the storm does not cause too much damage.  As we make our energy choices moving forward, perhaps we should consider the impacts our choices will have on villages like Kivalina?

Alaska is a hard place to leave in early June.  Earl Kingik and Ernie Frankson were missing the preparation for the annual whaling festival, ‘Nalukatuq’, in their home village of Point Hope, the oldest continuously occupied community in North America.  The village celebrates the harvest of the bowhead and beluga whales caught in the previous fall and the spring.  Norm Anderson is usually out on his boat near his hometown of Naknek, catching the first run of King Salmon, not catching a two-day plane flight from Dillingham to D.C. I am usually planting my garden, trying to catch what I can of the short 3 month vegetable growing season in my hometown of Palmer.  As good Alaskans, we found it hard to leave the State at the beginning of June for hot, muggy Washington D.C.   But we had to. 

Never before have the federal waters of Bristol Bay, the Chuckhi Sea, and the Beaufort Sea been under such threat.  In its’ five-year outer continental shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing program, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) proposes to open 83 million acres to leasing for oil and gas drilling.   

In a conversation in preparation for the visit to Washington D.C., Norm Anderson, the Economic Program Director for Bristol Bay Native Association, a commercial and subsistence fisherman, and a Native of the village of Naknek, likened the gathering of our dynamo group to the re-forming of the Blues Brothers.  “The band is back!” he belted with his characteristic enthusiasm.  We have worked alongside each other over the years on a myriad of natural resource issues in Alaska - from working to ensure the sensible management of federal lands that are habitat to a caribou herd half a million animals strong to preventing the richest salmon fishery in the world from becoming a mining district.  We were now united in a time of dire straits for Alaska’s offshore.  Our goal was to educate as many members of Congress as possible about Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea and why they should not be unilaterally opened to oil and gas drilling activities.   

Earl, Ernie and Norm, and their families, depend upon healthy populations of marine mammals and fish to nourish their subsistence-way-of-life as well as religious and cultural practices.  They shared many stories and images with Congress to drive home the connection between the basic human right to fish and hunt and the threat of an overly aggressive leasing program that ignores good science and common sense.   

Senator Lisa Murkowski and Representative Kucinich were among the Congressional members that we had face-to-face time with.  Dinah Bear, counsel for the Council for Environmental Quality also took the time to have a dialog about our concerns.   

While most (friendly) members of Congress are well versed on the reasons why we should not drill our way to energy independence in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nearly none of them had heard the word ‘Chukchi’, or met a Native Alaskan before, much less an Inupiat whaling captain.  Ernie is no stranger to Washington D.C. and was incredibly effective at sharing his experiences as a whaling captain with members of Congress.  Earl is also a whaler and subsistence hunter.  He hand delivered a resolution from the federally recognized sovereign tribe of the Native Village of Point Hope stating strong opposition to the development of oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean.  Earl also delivered other resolutions specifically opposing the proposed leasing plan including the Alaska Inter Tribal Council which represents over 240 of Alaska’s tribal councils. 

On day four we took inventory and found after 22 visits to Congressional offices and meetings, everyone but Earl had blisters on our feet!  We decided this was a sign of a successful week of work on the hill in D.C.   

The leg work and sweat paid off.  Within two weeks of our visit, Whit Sheard, Alaska Program Director was invited by the House Natural Resources Committee to speak to the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals on the deficiencies and environmental impacts of the 5 year OCS plan. 

As Earl, Ernie, Norm and I said good-bye and prepared to head to the airport to fly home to Alaska, Norm handed us each a sampling of deep red smoked salmon he had brought from Naknek.  It felt good to board the plane home with tender, tired feet yet feeling nourished and smelling sharply of Alaskan salmon.