This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

The Fight Over Alaska's Oil

Spanish Translation

By Terry McCarthy

White. The arctic landscape is many shades of white. It is the crisp white of blown snow, the gray-green white of ice on the sea, the silver white of an Arctic fox's fur, the turquoise white in the sky just before sunrise.

White. Senator Frank Murkowski of Alaska stood on the Senate floor in January and held up a sheet of white paper. That, he says, is all you can see in winter in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)-just "snow and ice." So what could be wrong with drilling for oil in this far corner of Alaska? Nothing is there.

White. Evon Peter, of the Native American Gwich'in (Gway-chin) tribe, stands atop a hill in Alaska and points out the many things he sees in anwr's whiteness. There is the line of a caribou trail, the Brown Bear River, Snowy Owl Mountain. "Here nature is the only law," he says.

That may be about to change. President George W. Bush, oil-industry leaders and others believe it's time to tap the black pool under the Arctic white. They say drilling for oil in anwr will help reduce high fuel prices and our country's need to buy foreign oil. For months, Bush has pushed for "environmentally sensitive exploration" of ANWR. This week Murkowski is introducing a Senate bill calling for drilling to begin.

But environmentalists say there is no "sensitive" way to drill here. The 19 million-acre area contains caribou, moose, musk oxen, wolves, foxes, grizzlies and polar bears, along with many migratory birds. Conservationists point out that the oil in the area may be less than a six-month supply for the U.S. They feel certain that Americans won't let oil companies mess with nature over a rather small amount of oil.

In Search of More Fuel
In 1980 Congress called for a study of 1.5 million acres along the coast of the refuge-called Area 1002. The study found that the area could produce between 3 billion and 16 billion barrels of oil, but drilling for the oil could harm wildlife.

Opponents of drilling point to nearby Prudhoe Bay, America's largest oil field. Prudhoe lights up the tundra for miles with harsh yellow light. Steam belches from plants eight stories high, and giant bulldozers grind along the 500 miles of roads that link 170 drilling sites.

Since drilling began there in 1977, the oil industry has tried to limit the damage it does to the Arctic ecosystem. New technology allows drilling to be done sideways below the surface to reduce the number of holes punched in the tundra. Pipelines are now raised five feet above the surface to allow animals to pass beneath. Still, "drilling for oil is an industrial process," says Ronnie Chappell of the BP Amoco oil company. "Some things you can't get rid of-like pipelines."

Wildlife experts fear that if drilling proceeds in ANWR, it could disturb polar bears, grizzlies and musk oxen. But their biggest worry is the caribou. More than 130,000 caribou migrate each spring into Area 1002. They travel 400 miles to give birth on the coastal plain, where there are fewer predators. Then, after feasting on the rich greenery that springs up in the 24-hour sunshine, they return. Oil drilling could disrupt this vital migration.

What Local Folks Say
The 5,000 members of the Gwich'in tribe are against drilling, mostly because they rely on the caribou for food. But members of the Inupiat tribe, the other Native American group in the area, generally favor the plan.

The Inupiat who live in tiny Kaktovik hunt whale and seal to eat. They say oil money will improve their lives. "Oil is important for our young people, for health care and education," says Isaac Akootchook, 78.

Most Alaskans favor the ANWR drilling. They get money each year from the state's oil earnings. Last year it was about $2,000 for every man, woman and child.

Few of the people who will make this big decision have ever seen the refuge. Murkowski plans to lead a group of Senators there when the weather warms up. Once they see it with their own eyes, what will they decide to do with this wealth of whiteness?

Next: A Spy in the FBI?