Why the current ANWR debate really bugs (dh) Jay:

The objection(s) don’t hold water.

Now, I’ve not been following this very closely, so I won’t say I know the ins and outs of the issue, but the only thing I as a latent observer have heard is the loud objection that drilling ANWR will a) disrupt/destroy the Porcupine caribou (10-points if you can spell those two words w/o checking) herd, and b) as a result crush the cultural/subsistence lives of the native population in that area.

(I personally think it is interesting the two parts of the argument: If you don’t care about the people, there’s the animals, if you don’t care about the animals, there’s the people.)

Anyway, everything in that argument hinges on the assumption that drilling (and the accompanying activities) will have a negative effect on the herd. A very large assumption, considering I’ve seen no research supporting this claim, and (as a frustrated Jay occasionally points out) there is plenty of current (and years-long) evidence from elsewhere in Alaska that the oil industry hasn’t had a negative effect on their local herds

As an example (?) or at least a point of interest, my family and I ate caribou just last August that was shot in sight of an oil rig (or whatever you call that piece of machinery). Big, healthy bull. May be the freshest meat I’ve ever eaten.

The limit on caribou (where it was shot) is 5 animals.
Per day.

I have a hard time seeing a population that comfortable as threatened, and those are animals that have lived around oil works for generations of their kind.

Makes you think… I hope.