Project heralds dangers of Alaskan oil drilling
By Colleen Pettie, contributing writer
Posted on April 10, 2006

If you saw a polar bear strolling the commons handing out fliers last week, you saw promotion for a project to raise awareness about drilling for oil in Alaska.

Six JMU students hope to increase knowledge among students and the community about the effects of drilling for oil in Alaska.

Not only are these students active in the area, they are also teamed up with the Alaska Wilderness League in Washington, D.C., which is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1993 to further the protection of Alaskan nature and wildlife.

As part of a project for an environmental communications class, the group, led by senior Sean McGrath, prepared to present the film “Being Caribou” in Health and Human Services last Wednesday evening and at Massanutten Library Thursday.

“Being Caribou” is a documentary which attempts to show what drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as President Bush is planning to do, would destroy.

In the film, newlyweds Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison followed the annual migration of caribou for seven months from inland Alaska to the Arctic Ocean’s shores, where the new calves are born.

They carried a president doll with them in order to “open his eyes” to the pristine surroundings.

“By showing the film, I want people to understand how dangerous drilling is to the environment and how it affects the economy,” McGrath said. “Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a poor option.”

“I am personally interested in this issue,” McGrath said. He initially became drawn in when he worked for a nonprofit environmental group last summer.

McGrath wants students to write letters to Representative Goodlatte asking him to vote against the provision in the 2007 Budget Resolution that allows drilling in the ANWR.

 The debate over drilling there has been going on since the 1980s. The United States uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day, according to CNN.com. Environmentalists argue that only 3.2 billion of the estimated 5.7 to 16 billion barrels of oil underground in ANWR would be refinable.

Group member junior Ashley Bronson said her group decided to do this project because, “It’s a hot issue right now, we’ve heard about it in the news and we’re all pretty interested in it.”