There are placed in our Nation that most of us will never have the chance to visit or see, wild places still pretty much in the same state as they were created. However, many of them are threatened by corporate greed which still has a great deal of power to work destruction. One of the most threatened places is the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope to the west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Created in 1923, this area was still subject to environmental reviews. However, White House executive orders to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have streamlined approvals for winter seismic exploration, eliminating the standard environmental reviews previously required for any project, endangering various species, such as polar bears, including the cubs, nesting beneath the snow. Caribou will also be affected as well as smaller animals who require the stillness and peace of this Reserve to exist.
One would think that the EPA would step in, but money talks there, too. Washington is still beholden to the fossil fuel lobby and its money. So much for God’s creation.
Prayer for the Day
During this season of longer nights, open our eyes to your light,
Help us to look through the windows of your majesty
So we may see your grace in the world around us.
Bring us a new vision of your world, full of possibilities
And help us to always work for your kingdom.
In the name of him who came to show us the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
That fossil fuel made us modern and comfortable, and it leaves behind a legacy even more overpowering than the pyramids—an altered atmosphere. Each day the warmth our carbon emissions trap is the heat equivalent of 500,000 Hiroshima-sized explosions.
Bill McKibben, environmental activist
These rule changes, when you zoom out, are an assault on threatened and endangered species unlike we’ve ever seen before. It’s an effort to eliminate habitat protections, eliminate automatic protections for threatened species, and give industry power.
Elizabeth Forsyth, Earthjustice, an environmental law organization
Let God rise up, let God’s enemies be scattered; let those who hate the Lord flee
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire, let the wicked perish before God.
Psalm 68: 1-2