History and Background
Background on Beaufort & Chukchi Seas
The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas make up America’s Arctic Ocean, with the Northern Bering Sea inextricably linked - this region is one of the most abundant marine ecosystems in the world due to a unique combination of natural elements. Not only are these waters virtually untouched by development, they also support a long list of conservation areas located in or adjacent that contain unique resources and values: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge; Bering Land Bridge National Preserve; Cape Krusenstern National Monument; Ledyard Bay Critical Habitat Area; Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and Kasegaluk Lagoon, Dease Inlet, and Peard Bay.
Furthermore, several Native villages are located adjacent to the Arctic Ocean. Their residents practice traditional lifestyles and rely for subsistence purposes on local wildlife, such as seals, walrus, bowhead and beluga whales, fish, birds, caribou, and other land animals.
Development Threats
Currently, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are pristine wild places. However, in the Administration’s new 2007-2012 Five-Year Plan, MMS plans to open the largest expanse of land ever: 33 million acres in the Beaufort Sea, and 40 million in the Chukchi Sea. Yet severe problems with the Interior Department’s management of oil and gas activities under the current five year plan keep coming to light. In fact, MMS is currently being sued by Native groups and conservationists over problems with lease sales and exploration in the Beaufort Sea. The sales and the accompanying environmental analyses have been rushed with insufficient public input and inadequate science and data on potential impacts.
Risks and Costs
Interior admits the terrifying reality that oil development, particularly a large spill, could cause long-lasting and devastating socio-cultural impacts in the Arctic Ocean, including contamination of food and water, cultural impacts, erosion of community integrity and identity, and substantial impairment to subsistence due to animal loss or changes in migration routes and behavior. Agency scientists overwhelmingly believe that more research is needed for monitoring and mitigating impacts. With the acknowledged lack of baseline information, monitoring impacts would be nearly impossible and management of those impacts rendered meaningless.
Offshore oil and gas development has a history of spills, contamination of ecosystems, and human and wildlife impacts. An honest cost/benefit analysis would show that the American taxpayer will wind up paying for oversight, clean-up and industry subsidies. Meanwhile, intelligent energy investments will be foregone for a foolhardy continuation of a resource off of which we need to wean ourselves.
Climate Change and Polar Bears
The effects of climate change are dramatic in Arctic Alaska; however, these effects are poorly analyzed, if at all, in the environmental assessments and statements for the leasing program. For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report notes that arctic sea ice has shrunk by over 20% percent since 1978 (an area of sea ice twice the size of Texas). Ice is a distinctive and critical feature to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. In January of 2007, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as threatened because global warming is destroying the ice that the bears need to hunt on and live. Moreover, all marine and coastal Arctic wildlife and people are integrally linked to and reliant on the ice-edge.
