Source: The New York Times (2/7/2019)

Title: “Tests for Oil in Arctic Refuge Won’t Happen This Winter, Officials Say”

Who: SAExploration: Company that plans to conduct seismic testing for oil and gas exploration across a large swath of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

What: Interior Department officials have a plan to open the coastal plain, 1.5 million acres known as the 1002 Area, to oil and gas development. The department, through the Bureau of Land Management, has said it wants to offer leases for sale this year.

When: It was supposed to happen this winter, but they’ve postponed it until next December.

Where: Coastal Plain along the Arctic Ocean.

Why: To search for oil and gas reserves. But the decision means that oil companies that bid on the leases will have to do so without the benefit of new data on potential reserves. The only seismic studies in the refuge were done three decades ago, using less-effective technology. An exploratory well, the only one in the refuge, was drilled around the same time, and its results have remained secret.

How: By using large trucks and other heavy equipment would crisscross the refuge coastal plain along the Arctic Ocean, using acoustic signals to map underground rock formations that may hold oil and gas reserves.

Impact: Opponents of the seismic plan have argued that the work would harm polar bears and other wildlife and leave indelible scars on the delicate tundra in the refuge, a vast, largely unspoiled wilderness in the northeastern part of the state. But the Bureau of Land Management and SAExploration have said that new seismic technology has little permanent impact on the landscape. The company says it is working with federal wildlife officials on steps to be taken to minimize harm to wildlife.

Relevance to society: The coastal plain is thought to overlie formations containing billions of barrels of oil, and the Trump administration has been eager to allow development, part of its push for more commercial activities on federal lands.

The seismic project is a joint venture with two Alaska Native corporations. Officials from SAExploration could not be reached for comment. The Sierra Club — which, with members of the Gwich’in community, Native Alaskans who live near the refuge, had organized a campaign to oppose the seismic work — hailed the decision. Democrats have blocked proposals to open the refuge for decades, but in 2017 the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress approved a plan to allow oil and gas development there. A draft environmental impact statement on the leasing plan was issued in December and is expected to be finalized this year, allowing the sales to proceed.

Relevance to the course: Critics said they were especially concerned about the harm that could be done to the southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation of polar bears, which has been declining in numbers as climate change has reduced sea ice in the region. More of the bears are making winter dens — in which pregnant females give birth to cubs — in snow drifts on the coastal plain. Steven C. Amstrup, chief scientist of the conservation group Polar Bears International, said the risk to the bears was that seismic trucks, which weigh up to 45 tons, could come close to or ride over dens, forcing the bears outside prematurely or even injuring or killing them.The Bureau of Land Management said precautions would be taken to identify and avoid dens, including the use of infrared sensing that can detect the warm bears in their frigid surroundings. But Dr. Amstrup said his research showed that such techniques would not detect all dens. The seismic work, he said, “has the potential of impacting 50 percent of dens in the most important denning area.”

Citation:

Fountain, Henry. “Tests for Oil in Arctic Refuge Won’t Happen This Winter, Officials Say.” The

New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/climate/seismic-testing-anwr-alaska.html.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/climate/seismic-testing-anwr-alaska.html

On Monday, February 4th, I attended a seminar on global climate change and sea turtles. Dr. Joseph Pfaller spoke at the seminar about the Caretta Research project which studies sea turtles, their migration/mating/laying patterns, their nests, etc. At this event, I learned about several different types of turtles that lay eggs along the east coast, primarily in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. I learned that female turtles come onto dry land, dig a hole, lay their eggs, cover them up, and then return to the ocean. During their laying season, females will usually lay 4-8 batches of eggs 13 days apart; so, in all, they lay anywhere from 80-180 eggs. The Caretta Research project typically collects data from these turtles while they’re laying their eggs by tagging them with various forms of identification. They also protect the turtle nests by tagging them, covering them, and sometimes relocating them. After the eggs hatch, the research team uses the discarded egg sacks to determine more information about the babies and their mother.

This seminar was informational with regards to our class in the sense that it showed me how our pollution can harm and even kill these sea turtles. Global warming is forcing these turtles to move farther north (to colder weather) where places have not been prepared and made safe for them. This global warming is also causing future generations of turtles to become primarily female (which can lead to extinction) because turtle gender is determined by temperature (hotter temperatures mean more females). Rising sea levels and ravenous storms due to global warming have been washing away turtle nests as well. Rising temperatures have also changed and slowed the currents that guide these turtles to food, mating partners, and laying grounds. Also, some of these sea turtles eat primarily jellyfish and thus have downward pointing spirals in their throats to lock prey inside; it just so happens that our plastic bags and many other man-made debris look a lot like a meal to many sea turtles.