Over the past decade oil companies have developed innovative ways to explain why oil drilling is good for the environment and the people who live near major oil projects. The Willow project of ConocoPhillips on Alaska’s North Slope is a good example of selling fossil fuel drilling as a good thing for Alaska and the Nuiqsut community.
The company website even has a section marked “Spirit Values,” pointing out how this project will enhance living standards and community development. This is spin at its highest level. The state, which will get revenue, lots of it, of course, does not oppose the project. Money conquers all, overriding local peoples and nature.
ConocoPhillips didn’t modify its disastrous proposal out of the goodness of its heart. It did so because the courts threw out the initial proposal as destructive to the North Slope, the Nuiqsut people, and the environment. Willow is only one part of the plan to “develop” (read: destroy) the Western North Slope. Arctic warming affects us all, and this project is only one more step to a warmer climate.
Prayer for the Day
Everything seems to cost so much these days, dear Lord,
And we are tempted to latch on to empty promises;
We listen to politicians and companies, each calling to us,
But, deep in our hearts, we wonder what the costs really are.
Move us beyond the words that speak to our fears,
Lest we betray your call to a just and holy life.
In the name of the One who spoke without fear,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Nobody disputes that cheap natural gas would be a good thing for the economy. The question is, is this a sustainable new development that can be counted on for decades to come or simply a bubble brought on by a land grab and drilling frenzy.
- Jeff Goodell, American environmental writer
In reality drilling is the slowest, dirtiest, and most expensive way to solve our energy crisis.
- Lois Capp, former Member of Congress
Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? –
When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,
And prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said,
‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here your proud waves be stopped?’
Job 38: 8-11