Yellow Billed Loon saves National Petroleum Reserve 6/13/2007 2:49:11 PM
Glad to report I've finished my novel "Alaska Now". Its about the battle of the Bush Administration to open both the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum reserve to oil development in the Beaufort Sea. There is a temporary reprieve as the endangered Yellow Billed Loon gets a stay of execution by Wildlife Management. Hi All. Delighted to report that my latest novel "Alaska Now" is moving through Booksurge LLC and will be available on Amazon. com within about three weeks. I believe the novel is important as it updates information about Alaskans since James Michener's "Alaska". In particular the book looks at the battle between resource extraction (primarily oil) and the rights of wildlife to have any area left.
The whole of the North Alaska coastline from Point Hope on the western coast to the Canadian Border is threatened with exploratory oil drilling. Already the Prudhoe oil fields are developed. The Bush Administration is determined to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. AMWR is on the east of the Prudhoe fields. To the left of the Prudhoe fields is the National Petroleum Reserve, recently opened to development by the Bush Administration. The problem of all of this and the offshore drilling the companies want to do is that these areas are home to millions of migratory birds, bowfin whales and Caribou herds which it can be expected will be severely endangered by development. The Beaufort Sea is to be the scene of exploratory oil drilling. This Sea is one of the wildest in the world and if another Exxon Valdez oil spill occurs untold damage will be done to the great Northern wildlife refuges of North America.
A temporary reprieve had been granted because of the endangered yellow-billed loons who nest in the Arctic tundra of the National Petroleum Reserve. Now at least public inquiry must be done before drilling there proceeds. We can only hope that some sanity is left in the world that will prevent the whole of the Northern Alaska coastline (called with good reason the Northern Serengetti) turned into one massive series of oil wells, drill rigs, pipelines and equipment stations. All for six months worth of oil that could be alternatively saved by conservation efforts.
Hopefully my novel "Alaska Now" about this matter will be another drop in the river of conservation protest that seeks to preserve one of the few remaining wildlife sanctuaries on this planet.
