Do People Really Depend on Caribou from the Arctic Refuge?
The Bush administration has made it a priority to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and drilling by Chevron, BP Amoco and Exxon Mobil. The Arctic Refuge continues to be one of the last pristine areas in North America left “undeveloped.” It is also very crucial to certain indigenous communities residing in the area who depend heavily on its resources. The Gwich’in, for example, who live next to the Refuge are caribou people. They rely on the caribou herds for their food and livelihood. Any oil exploration and drilling threatens to devastate the Gwich’in community by disrupting caribou migration and calving, and may well destroy parts of the pristine Arctic Refuge grounds which the caribou use for their survival. Not only does the opening of the Arctic Refuge immediately threaten the environment and human rights of the Gwich’in but it also poses a grave long-term threat to the Arctic at large and all the populations that reside within it. Large oil corporatio
