Climate Change Update - 10/12/2005
Within the following weeks, I will be posting the results and conclusions of the project's 2005 field observations and documentation of life within the 1002 region of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As you can see from the photo of the Central Arctic Herd taking refuge upon the sea ice, this is exactly the behavioral utilization of "Super Sanctuary" as described within the text and conclusions of my observations from the 2004 season here in the 1002.

At this very moment on Barter Island, the winds continue to blow in the third day of a snow and wind storm so common to the region. Fifty mile an hour winds scour the landscape, driving the most hardy of animals to seek relief from the wind.
Polar Bear sow faced away from the wind. In protection afforded of her position, her cub sleeps closely beside.
In a time of global climate change, the plight of the Polar Bear cannot be overlooked in consideration of the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development. Given that the greatest oil related activities will admittedly take place throughout the winter, coinciding with the most sensitive and critical time of the Polar Bear's life cycle oil development presents an unavoidable conflict in which the bears will lose.

We are at the verge of change in the Arctic which will re-write the terms of life for the entire planet. The exact outcome of that change is a hotly debated issue. Regardless of that outcome, it is the responsibility of a civilized culture to afford the Polar Bear population of the United States a refuge and haven where they may deliver and raise their cubs, where they may find the extra stores of much needed sustenance. If the future does bring challenge to the continued existence of these bears, it is our responsibility to see that we do not contribute to that end.

I find it difficult to understand why the National Wildlife Refuge system affords the protection of so many species of waterfowl while failing to secure the coastal denning region of the 1002, the largest concentration of on-shore Polar Bear denning in Alaska, as "Polar Bear Refuge".

This is a complex topic with many facets. In the coming weeks I will present details, facts and activities that all come to head on this one issue: the future of Polar Bear survival. There is one immediate question with which we, as a nation, as the human race, are faced: do not we stop, take pause, give the benefit of the doubt to life so deserving, take the time to consider climate change, to consider the full impact of our actions? Are we not obligated, as evolved life forms, to behave in a fashion other than that of greed and self serving behavior?

I understand that we need oil; I am not anti-oil, nor am I anti-oil development. I am pro-humanity, pro-civilization. I have witnessed the lies, the corruption, the greed, the emergence of subhumans that will sell the soul of life in return for a profit. This is not the pathway to continued human survival, it is our decline. The loss of wilderness, the loss of species, the loss of terms that define the civilization of man will not be offset by more oil.

Arthur C. Smith III

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