The traditional image most people have of the artic tundra, is a vast, featureless sheet of ice, home to a few polar bears and maybe an Eskimo. The reality is that the artic is not the never ending snowstorm you picture in your head. There are several different settings that can be described as the "artic." In the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge located in northern Alaska you can see beautiful mountain ranges with trees and rivers, home to caribou, wolves and musk ox. Elsewhere you might be startled by a thunderous crash, you"d look in the direction of the rumble and see a massive glacier. The sheer walls hundreds of feet high, immeasurable blocks of ice break off into a deep blue sea, creating a massive swell which overpoweringly pushes outward in all directions. This area of Alaska which we call ANWR, is a diverse region that is not only breathtaking but is the most controversial potential oil drilling locations in the world (Lester). There are many internal disputes over whether or not drilling can take place in ANWR safely, however, the fact remains that rather than drilling for oil, Americans should be changing their everyday lifestyles to prolong the earths natural support systems.
Everyday our world becomes more and more industrialized, and the few unique, natural settings that are left are being wiped off the face of the Earth. The town of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska is a perfect example. It too was once pristine artic tundra. Now it consists of a network of gravel roads, production plants and drilling derricks that produce about a million barrels of oil a day (Lester). Rather than shaping our economy to sustain our future, these places such as jungles, rainforests, and the artic are being destroyed so Americans can live their lives with ease. Man has become so dependent on the earth's natural resources that beautiful environments must be disrupted in order to satisfy society's needs.