BS: Latest on ANWR

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Dec 05 - 01:06 PM

So provided the caribou can be provided for, which is feasible, you have no objections to proceeding with oil exploration?

The caribou are not endangered by any proposals I've heard. The impact most mentioned is a change in caribou migratory paths which would impact the humans who hunt them.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: CarolC
Date: 23 Dec 05 - 01:27 PM

So provided the caribou can be provided for, which is feasible, you have no objections to proceeding with oil exploration?

Not necessarily. I need to know a lot more about other factors related to environmental impact before I could say I have no objections.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: dianavan
Date: 23 Dec 05 - 08:13 PM

From Indian and Northern Affairs Canada -

"The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation has about 400 members, most of whom live in Old Crow, a community located north of the Arctic Circle in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The Vuntut Gwitchin depend heavily on the Porcupine Caribou, a source of food and other products that has sustained them for thousands of years. In recent years, intended oil exploration and development in the area has threatened the herd's calving grounds."

The female caribou need the rich source of protein which they find on the calving grounds. They need these plants to sustain them during lactation as well.

If the caribou die, the Gwitchin culture will also die.

Thats called cultural genocide.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Dec 05 - 08:26 PM

I can't speak for the Canada side, but I've been through calving grounds during calving season, and no Caribou were dying. Due to the strong State Regulations and Regulators, there were travel restrictions imposed and equipment operating restrictions. These appeared to work in the area I actually saw. There are many caribou herds throughout Alaska and I'm not aware of any of them being threatened. They are all monitored and some if not the majority are hunted.

There are Gwichin on the US side of the border with concerns as to migratory changes that may occur. Their culture is alive and well. They have a political voice and they use it.

Thanks for your concern.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 05 - 08:47 PM

almost buried in the good news is the detail about how Stevens tried to sneak it in by attaching it to another important bill...literally at the last minute..(luckily, caught and removed). This sort of last-minute attachment was supposedly outlawed by Senate rules awhile back, but is 'routinely ignored' according to the Wash Post.

I'd LOVE to see a serious ban against marrying unrelated bills for the sake of pork-barrel legislation....but I suppose every politician wonders when HE will need that trick for his own purposes.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: Ron Davies
Date: 24 Dec 05 - 03:15 PM

Guest------Bingo.

Subject: RE: BS: Latest on ANWR
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Dec 05 - 05:25 PM

Does any old fart (beside me) remember a Crocket Johnson comic strip called Barnaby? There was an episode where Mr. O'Malley, his fairy godfather, pushed an unpopular bill through Congess as a rider on a motion to adjourn. Somehow, it was funnier then (ca 1942)