American Golden-Plover
Coastal plains in background - to be more precise, area 1002 of the Arctic Refuge that is now going to be open to oil exploration. Somehow it escaped drilling all these years (since 1977) but drilling was included (during the Trump administration) in the "Tax Cuts And Jobs Act 2017". The total production from ANWR is estimated to be between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030. Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have any significant impact on world oil price. The required network of oil platforms, pipelines, roads and support facilities, not to mention the threat of oil spills, would play havoc on wildlife. The coastal plain is a calving home for some 129,000 caribou of the Porcupine herd. "The Arctic Plain is really nothing,” Don Young, Alaska’s representative, said during a 2011 Congressional hearing on the refuge. “It is not the heart. It is the most desolate part of the area.” Desolate my ass!
