Contributed by Sean Thorne
How do we be the best possible stewards of our shared planet? If you care about the environment, you should demand that we utilize Alaska’s resources. I have had the good fortune of traveling significantly in the developing world, and I have been able to see what resource extraction often looks like in such places. Put simply, it is generally not a pretty sight. I consider myself an environmentalist, and because of that I want resource extraction done in Alaska by Alaskans, where we have the worlds best track record of development; where we make good jobs, where we do it better, cleaner and safer than anywhere else.
One of the biggest criticisms of overall American culture is that we tend to not want to see ‘dirty work’. We still want the benefit of those things being done, but we want it done out of sight and out of mind. People want a steak, but they don’t want to see a stockyard. They want that new table, but they don’t want to see a stump. They want to drive to visit family, they don’t want to see an oil derrick. Because of this tendency, we have exported so many of these jobs overseas, where we get the benefit but without the burden of looking it in the eye. Because of this, we can make claims of ‘being green’ but those things are now often being done by people who are doing it as irresponsibly as we ever did at our worse.
The Biden Administration consistently claims that it has no fault in the increase in gas prices, and that it is something we must tolerate to combat Putin’s aggression. Every Alaskan knows better. Before the Ukraine invasion happened, they were already doing everything they could to shut down federal oil leasing in Alaska as part of a green agenda. Well, it still has to come from somewhere. Envision this hypocrisy: President Biden acting as a champion of Pride Month, while shutting down Alaskan oil development in Cook Inlet, all while groveling for more oil output from countries where it is a death penalty to be gay and where they use indentured servants for cheap oilfield labor. That does not seem like a moral American solution to me. How is that better than doing it here?
To my mind, one of the worse offenses was the federal government shutting down logging in the Tongass National Forest. The Tongass is well over 16 million acres, and the plan for logging would have allowed for renewable usage and made good jobs in the progress. That is a large area, and trees do grow back when you give them 50 years. Our plan was good. The decision to stop the logging was made by an appointed bureaucrat with no public accountability, and championed by metropolitan residents who will likely never come to Alaska. They pat themselves on the back and sleep well at night, while now our wood must come from somewhere else. Somewhere like Mozambique, one of those developing countries where I have seen it first hand, where clear cut deforestation is quite common, and illegal logging of rare species is a tolerated evil. How much better off is the planet?
When we pulled US forces out of Afghanistan, it did not go well. No one questions that, but one of the most disgusting things I saw in the fallout of it was the many federal politicians and retired generals on cable news complaining that now we won’t have access to Afghanistan’s rare earth mineral deposits. They would rather more Americans die there to hold onto those mines. That is not a good enough justification for me to feel ok about young Americans dying. What they rarely mention is that Alaska has massive deposits of rare earth metals. We don’t even have to launch a 20-year war and sacrifice thousands of other people’s children to get at it, what a bargain! Why not give peace a chance and mine rare earth minerals here?
For these reasons and more, I as an environmentalist want more resources to come from Alaska. I would love to see a day where Alaska and Alaskans have the decision-making power over development, instead of the ever-changing winds of federal bureaucrats dictating to us how to live. If I could hit the magic button and transfer all federal lands here to our control, I would. America may be a bit ‘greener’ with the way we currently do resource policy, but the world is immeasurably worse off. Everything we use comes from somewhere. We all need to fight to ensure it can still come from the place that does it cleaner, safer and better than anywhere else, Alaska.
