The Threat Of Global Warming - 1779 Words

We are paying the consequences from past generation’s inability to make the right but hard choices, in order to protect and preserve our environment. The NRDC website lists the top global warming symptoms as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, severe weather patterns, the human health, and wildlife. (Consequences of Global Warming). Drilling in ANWR would cause horrifying situations for the wildlife ecosystem and inescapable affects on life in America and around the world, as we know it. In the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s annual report and recommendations to the US Congress, they revealed the astounding fact that, â€Å"The Artic Refuge is the only conservation system unit that protects, in an undisturbed condition, a complete†¦show more content†¦8). The wildlife and undisrupted wilderness is interwoven in their culture, daily lives, and sense of themselves (Inkley, Kolton, p. 8). Sarah James, a member of the Neets’all Gwich’in, Art ic Village Gwich’in Steering committee, emphasized this connection, stating, â€Å"We are the Caribou People†¦Caribou are not just what we eat; they are who we are. They are in our stories and songs and the whole way we see the world. Caribou are our life. Without caribou we wouldn’t exist† (Inkley, Kolton, p. 8). As oil drilling in ANWR would inevitably disrupt and threaten the safety and existence of the caribou, it would disrupt and threaten the safety and, as Sarah emphasizes in her last statement, herself and her villages’ existence. The abundance of wildlife within the diverse ANWR ecosystem is the beating heart of our natural global environment, with an immeasurable amount of importance with regards to our environments interconnectivity. With over 8 marine mammal species and 42 species of fish, the robust ANWR ecosystem provides the uninterrupted conservation and preservation required for these species spawning rituals, in order to maintain the fish population necessary for our mass fishing industry, that we have become so accustomed to in the lower 48 (Inkley, Kolton, p. 8). An enormous portion of the fish we consume is Alaskan salmon; whose spawning ground environment ANWR oil