Regarding an issue that some boil down to mere numbers and statistics, it was refreshing to see the new National Geographic cover story add faces and stories to the fight to save Alaska from oil drillers. The moving photographs and poignant accounts remind us of what else is at stake as Congress continues to debate the issue.

The interests of big oil, wild creatures, and native populations
collide on the largest remaining piece of U.S. wilderness,
Alaska's North Slope.

"The town is so full of anger," says Bernice Kaigelak, who teaches traditional Inupiat language and skills at the Nuiqsut village school. "We’re trying to find a balance between subsistence and the Western way of living. There are some areas we don’t want them to trash, other areas we’d like them to use. I’ve come to the point that regardless of what we say or do, they’re going to come anyway. If you work with them, you have some control."

Nuiqsut is a small village that is home to about one-hundred families on the eastern edge of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska (or NPR-A). One of the strengths of the thirty-two page article is that, in addition to talking about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it also looks west to the rest of America’s Arctic. With gorgeous pictures and well-written accounts, the article covers federal BLM land, native lands, the Brooks Range, and Teshekpuk Lake - areas of ecological and cultural significance that are often overshadowed by the Arctic Refuge.

Nuiqsut is one of many villages unhappy about recent developments and the years of fighting. Drillers have forced them to change their way of life - a price tag has been applied to a place they consider priceless.

"The caribou herd used to come here. Hardly does anymore now that this pipeline is here. Oil is a good thing for the jobs, but it changes things."

-Chester Hopson of Nuiqsut

The article includes an impressive four page map of the North Slope. It is a startling reminder of just how much of America’s Arctic has been leased or is eligible for leasing to oil companies. The red dots, which symbolize where an oil well is located, are also scattered across the map - the vast majority in state and native lands. It is hard to miss the thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands, of animals - shorebirds, raptors, caribou, and whales - that would be affected or have already been affected by drillers.

Noted biologist George Schaller is quoted in the article, and his words help summarize the position that we endorse regarding the Arctic Refuge and all of the other significant and threatened lands in the Arctic:

"It is the ultimate in patriotism to leave future generations what the past reveres. Drilling in ANWR is just ecological vandalism. You have the landscape of 10,000 years compared with Prudhoe Bay, which has the landscape of New Jersey. What kind of society do we have that would destroy that for future generations for a few more gallons of gas?"

National Geographic should be commended for this piece. Go ahead and send a thank you email to them ( ngsforum@nationalgeographic.com ) and let them know that they stand on the right side of the issue and to continue fighting to keep oil companies out of Alaska. After having read the article, a common question resurfaced in my mind: weighing all aspects of the issue, how can anyone continue to argue for drilling in America’s most cherished wild lands?