The Arctic Defense Campaign asks Houstonians to help convince the oil and gas industry to protect one of our last pristine places from drilling
By Jessica Larrinaga
The Arctic is far away from Texas – it lies in the northernmost part of Alaska – but Texans can make huge impacts on Arctic wildlife in the coming months.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on the northern slope of Alaska, is home to a vast array of wildlife, from polar bears to caribou to migratory birds. It is also the homeland of the Gwich’in people. The Refuge is at risk of being drilled by oil and gas companies, many of which are headquartered here in Houston.
The Arctic Defense Campaign is a coalition of Indigenous people, Alaskans, wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists, veterans, sportsmen, scientists, athletes, people of faith, and many others committed to protecting this irreplaceable and culturally and ecologically significant landscape from the threat of oil and gas development.
The Trump Administration has called for rollbacks of protections against large-scale drilling in the Arctic. The recent budget bill also mandates multiple oil and gas lease sales in the coming years across America’s Arctic, including on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge which has never before been touched by oil & gas industrialization.
Drilling in the Refuge would have detrimental impacts on wildlife. The Refuge is a place with no roads and no infrastructure. It contains some of the last genuinely wild public lands our country has to offer. Drilling operations would turn this upside down. They would require the construction of pipelines and roads. Tankers and drilling infrastructure would generate noise and light pollution that would devastatingly impact wildlife ecosystems.
The first step in the drilling process is called seismic exploration. This entails using trucks to generate sound waves that identify potential resource deposits. This process can only take place in the winter, when the ground in the Arctic is at its hardest. This coincides with polar bear hibernation, and seismic exploration has the potential to collapse polar bear dens, as well as disrupt whales living offshore in the Arctic.
It is vital to prevent this seismic exploration and work towards obtaining permanent protections for the Arctic region. To do that, the Arctic Defense Campaign is calling on leaders in the oil and gas industry to make commitments to stay out of the Arctic. Not only would industrialization be devastating in the Refuge, but drilling in the Arctic also has questionable economic benefits. It would be risky and extremely costly to begin building infrastructure from scratch.
To convince leaders to keep drilling out of the Arctic, we are mobilizing the public in Houston. Americans care about the Arctic and want to keep it pristine when they know about the issue. That’s why involving the American public in efforts to protect the Arctic region is more critical now than ever, especially as seismic exploration efforts could begin in the coming months.
We are launching a grassroots campaign to inform Houstonians about the Arctic region and the numerous wildlife species that call it home, and to mobilize them to take action to protect this vital ecosystem.
In the coming weeks and months, we will work to gather grassroots petitions calling on corporations to protect the Arctic Sign the petition here.
We will also host several events, including our campaign Kick Off Meeting on September 19th at 3:00 at the University of Houston main campus in the Downtown Room of Student Center South. Register here or just show up. We will also be at the Houston Climate Week closing ceremonies to spread the word about our campaign to protect the Arctic. We have numerous ways for community members to get involved with our campaign, from volunteering at petition drives to simply sharing information about the Arctic with their friends and family.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Arctic Defense Campaign, feel free to reach out to me at jlarrinaga@greencorps.org or (813)-508-5640.