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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
ACTION
ITEM: Carter Calls for Arctic Refuge Protection
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
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Conservation
08/27/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Former
President Carter has come out in support of giving monument
status
to Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is one of
the
last, best, complete natural ecosystems on the planet--and is
also
coveted for oil reserves. This past
July I asked, "is any
portion
of the World's biosphere to be off limits to oil drilling?
Do we
have to destroy all remaining wildernesses, and put every last
bit of
carbon dioxide found in oil into the atmosphere, before we
start
earnestly developing alternatives?"
The question still stands.
Former
President Carter has asked that concerned individuals contact
President
Clinton to encourage him to declare the area a monument,
thus
giving it permanent protection and making it off-limits to oil
development. Please email President Clinton at
president@whitehouse.gov,
or call the comments line at (202) 456-
1111,
and request that he do so.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Carter calls for Arctic refuge
protection
Source: Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights
reserved.
Date: August 24, 2000
ANCHORAGE,
Alaska (Reuters) -- President Clinton should grant
permanent
protection to a narrow section of Arctic coastline in
Alaska,
completing the job started by a sweeping conservation law
passed
in 1980, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday.
"The
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be declared, without
further
delay, a national monument," Carter told a luncheon audience
at a
ceremony hosted by the Alaska Conservation Foundation.
The
former president urged environmentalists to write letters to
Clinton,
a fellow Democrat, encouraging him to use his powers under
the
1906 Antiquities Act to make the declaration.
"We
are just as interested as he is in the legacy he leaves behind,"
Carter
said.
It was
the first time Carter had publicly declared his support for
giving
monument status to the refuge's coastal plain, which is prized
by
environmentalists and the area's Athabaskan Indians for its
wildlife,
but coveted by the oil industry for its potential petroleum
riches.
Carter
was in Alaska for celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of
the
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the sweeping
environmental
legislation he signed just before leaving office.
The law
put 106 million federally owned acres in Alaska into national
parks,
wildlife refuges, designated wilderness areas and other
protected
reserves.
Carter
said although he considered the act one of his top legacies, it
left
one significant task undone -- protecting the coastal plain
wedged
the steep mountains of the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean.
The
former president put in a plug for Democratic presidential
contender
Al Gore, saying he "would like to see a president who is an
environmentalist
and a vice president who has not just received $20
million
from the oil companies as a retirement present."
The
reference was to Republican vice presidential candidate Dick
Cheney,
who received a $20 million retirement package from Halliburton
when he
quit his job as chief executive to join George W. Bush's
Republican
ticket.
Bush
and Cheney support oil drilling in the refuge, while the
Democratic
candidates oppose drilling there. In Alaska, politicians of
both
parties generally favor oil development in the refuge.
Oil
revenues fund two-thirds of Alaska's state government operations.
Residents
pay no state income or sales taxes and receive an annual
dividend
from a state-owned trust fund created with oil wealth. Last
year's
dividend was $1,770.
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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