This–No Refuge Is an Island–is precisely what has worried me over Arctic drilling–not just that one place (though that is troubling, indeed) but the whole of the protected lands.
In the controversy over whether petroleum development in the Arctic Refuge is worth the threat to habitat and wilderness, a crucial broader issue has been lost: how will drilling and development affect the 95 million-acre refuge system? Last month’s Senate vote to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling puts the already-patchy network in danger of unraveling — and it defies a protective statute Congress enacted just eight years ago.
myfanwy collins 