Bush should preserve environment

It was only a matter of time before President George W. Bush would be back in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve trying to ruin one of America’s great treasures. Currently on the Senate floor is a bill to open up ANWR to logging and pre-drilling. For the sake of preserving our limited environment, the Senate must, like last year, vote no on opening ANWR.

This is pristine land that cannot be repaired once the drill rigs begin. Further, the fact remains that many environmentalists have said there is only three months of oil to be mined in the region. Three months of oil doesn’t amount to much. Opening up ANWR would only pave the way for loggers and drillers to have access to the few remaining pristine lands in the country. Some lands need to be protected, and ANWR is one of them.

It would be shameful if the Bush administration used the looming war with Iraq as an excuse to open up the land for drilling. The United States gets the majority of its oil from South America to begin with, so although a war with Iraq would reduce the amount of oil imported from that particular country, it is not the majority source of oil.

What Bush wants to do in ANWR doesn’t seem worth it. This land needs to be preserved — there are too many dangers to drilling and logging.

Though it is appropriate to argue that the profit of drilling is a very small supply of oil, the fact is, regardless of the amount of oil in the area, the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve needs permanent protection.

University Wire — Rutgers University