Like the canary in the coal mine, the climate changes already evident in the Arctic are a call to action.
We’re very interested in seeing what science Exxon has been using for its own purposes because they’re tremendously active in offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, for example, where global warming is happening at a much more rapid rate than in more temperate zones.
Offshore drilling is not the solution to U.S. energy independence, and I am against opening parts of the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans to oil and natural gas production.
I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of fantastic people, from royalty to rock stars. I’ve also been known to be a bit of a daredevil, so I’ve tried to explore extreme travel and adventure – scuba-diving in an arctic glacier and camping in the Himalayas.
Shell has poured billions of dollars into offshore Arctic drilling, but no matter how much it spends, it cannot make the effort anything but a terrifying gamble. And if Shell, the most profitable company on Earth, can’t buy its way to safety in Alaska, nobody can.
The reality is that my wife would be pretty upset if I went and bought a plot of land somewhere in Outer Mongolia or the Arctic Circle!
It’s our human nature to explore. Tens of thousands of years ago, our species walked out of Africa, traveling far and wide across the entire planet, from the Arctic to the tip of Tierra Del Fuego, making us the most geographically diversified species on Earth.
Humans are an infant species, a mere 150,000 years old. But, armed with a massive brain, we’ve not only survived, we’ve used our wits to adapt to and flourish in habitats as varied as deserts, Arctic tundra, tropical rainforests, wetlands and high mountain ranges.
The undisturbed coastal plain is home to a wide variety of plants and animals and is the only wilderness sanctuary in North America that protects a complete range of the arctic ecosystem.
The world’s oceans are littered with trillions of pieces of plastic – bottles, bags, toys, fishing nets and more, mostly in tiny particles – and now this seaborne junk is making its way into the Arctic.
Many climate scientists say their biggest fear is that warming could melt the Arctic permafrost – which stretches for thousands of miles across Alaska, Canada, and Siberia.
I believe Ronald Reagan can make this country what it once was… a large Arctic region covered with ice.
As technology keeps improving, the price of oil keeps rising, and the ice keeps melting, Arctic energy is bound to be an increasingly bigger part of the global mix.
From drought-parched Brazil to the increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean, from the rising seas along the Florida coast to the punishing heat waves hitting South Asia, in communities large and small, rich and poor, urban and remote, we can see the irrefutable evidence of what science has long told us was coming.
For vacation, I like going to places I’ve never been before. I’ve gone to some remote places, like the Arctic Circle.
If we drill the hell out of everything, including protected public lands and fragile regions like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America can emerge as an ‘energy superpower.’
I was at Leeds Carnegie, the ninth tier. And I was coaching students. There would have been hundreds of managers with more experience. So I had to go to the fourth tier of Swedish football, pretty much in the Arctic circle.
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