In early 2005 I was a student at Portland Community College, taking my first college-level political science class. One day we had a guest speaker come to class: Chief Evon Peter of the Gwich’in people of the Arctic. Peter spoke about what was at that time perhaps the hottest environmental debate in the halls of national government: the fight over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I remember being captivated and inspired by Peter’s description of the Refuge’s cultural importance to his people. Lest we think protecting the Arctic is only about caribou and polar bears, this remote piece of North America has been inhabited by people for thousands of years. Like indigenous peoples everywhere, the Gwich’in have been forced to fight back against political, economic, and cultural colonization. According to Peter, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge needs to stay protected for the cultural well being of his people.
Today the Arctic Refuge is again under threat, and the danger may be even greater than in 2005. As of yesterday, the Republican tax bill moving through the Senate is officially also a bill to open up the Refuge to drilling—something Republicans and oil industry lobbyists have been dreaming about for decades. The drilling provision has been wrapped into the tax legislation under the guise of providing a new source of tax revenue. The fate of one of the last largely intact ecosystems in North America hangs in the balance.
Adjustments to the U.S. tax code come and go. Tax breaks for billionaires would take millions of dollars away from much-needed social programs and put them in the hands of private industry. This would have enormous social and economic cost, but those regressive tax changes could be undone later when Democrats again control Congress. However, once drilling starts in the Arctic Refuge, there’s no going back. Once damaged that ecosystem cannot be fully restored within our lifetimes.
If you weren’t truly worried about the tax bill yet, now is the time for that to change. Call your U.S. Senators, right now—even if you live in a safely blue state, they need to hear that stopping this horrible legislation is a top priority for their constituents. Seriously: stop reading this blog post, find your senators’ DC phone numbers on their web sites, and dial that number.