Alaska Natives tested by plan for mine
Protecting salmon is an issue - but so is firm's largesse
Karl Vick, Washington Post
Sunday, December 30, 2007
(12-30) 04:00 PST Nondalton , Alaska -- The gold mine proposed for this stunning open country might be the largest in North America. It would involve building the biggest dam in the world at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, which it would risk obliterating.
Epic even by Alaskan standards, the planned Pebble Mine has divided a state normally enthusiastic about extracting whatever value can be found in its wide-open spaces. It is an ambivalence that has upended traditional politics, divided families and come to rest at kitchen tables like the one 75-year-old Olga Balluta sat beside one autumn afternoon, listing her favorite foods.
"Brown bear fat and black bear fat. Fish gut salad - crackly when you eat it," said Balluta, a member of the local native population that would be most directly affected by the mine.
From his chair by the sink, neighbor Rick Delkittie said, "I know my grandfather used to tell me, 'Don't ever get used to the white man's food.' "
That lesson, with its implied warning against dependence on anyone outside the land and waters that have nourished local residents for almost 10,000 years, guides the subtle, shifting and uniquely Alaskan calculation that will decide whether Pebble goes forward.
Environmentalists and commercial fishing interests have mounted a well-funded public relations campaign against the project. Mining companies are investing hundreds of millions to make it inevitable. The two sides agree only that Pebble's fate is likely to pivot on the sentiments of a few thousand local residents who would have to live beside it....
Dr. Daniel Pauly (click here).
He is the author of 'Shifting Baselines,'(click here) a phenomena that allows changing landscape to dominate what is considered 'normal baseline' in biological systems. A Shifting Baseline is adverse to the best outcomes of any ecosystem.
Exxon-Mobil to defend Alaska oil leases (click here)
Point Thompson oil and gas fields at stake
From the Associated Press December 29, 2007
JUNEAU, ALASKA -- Exxon Mobil Corp. must get a chance to tell the state why its leases on fields holding about 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves should not be revoked, a state Superior Court judge has ruled.
Judge Sharon Gleason, however, said in her decision Wednesday that the Alaska Department of Natural Resources acted properly in rejecting an Exxon Mobil development plan for Point Thomson, an area with more than a quarter of the known gas in all North Slope fields.
The stakes are a timely development of Point Thomson, considered vital toward building a natural gas pipeline that could potentially ship 35 trillion cubic of natural gas to heat and power homes and businesses throughout North American markets.
Gov. Sarah Palin hailed the ruling Thursday.
"This ruling represents another significant step forward in the state's efforts to develop the valuable oil and gas resources in the Point Thomson reservoir and to hold the lessees to the commitments they made in the unit agreement," Palin said in a prepared statement.
An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment on Gleason's ruling....
Alaska state senator asked to resign in wake of scandal (click on title to entry)
western news
By SEAN COCKERHAMAnchorage Daily News Monday, December 31, 2007
The state Senate minority has sent a letter to Anchorage Sen. John Cowdery asking him to resign from public office because he has been implicated in the Veco bribery scandal (click here for PBS access to must see video).
"Now that we are approaching the regular session, and with it seeming the majority does not intend to do anything, we felt it was appropriate to say something," Senate Minority Leader Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, said.
Therriault said the letter was hand-delivered to Cowdery more than a week ago. He said the only other copies went to state Senate President Lyda Green and Senate Majority Leader Gary Stevens....
Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park, a prime example of a shifted baseline allowed to exist out of helplessness due to the continued ravages of Human Induced Global Warming. This bay has been an early warning signal for decades and it's simply a victim of American negligence of the very Earth they rely on to survive.
Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m
Time :: 10.36 AM EST
Temperature :: 32 °F / 0 °C
Conditions :: Overcast
Humidity :: 80%
Dew Point :: 27 °F / -3 °C
Wind :: 6 mph / 9 km/h / 2.6 m/s from the NNW
Pressure :: 30.30 in / 1026 hPa (Steady)
Windchill :: 26 °F / -3 °C
Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 1600 ft / 487 m
Overcast 4700 ft / 1432 m
(Above Ground Level)
