Nature Note:Canadian Author Supports More Wilderness in ANWR

President Barack Obama is seeking to expand wilderness protection in ANWR,the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,making it off-limits to oil drilling.According to Canadian author Edward Struzik,whose book "Future Arctic" has just been published,it's the same old story.The difference now is,we may be coming to the end of frontier oil and gas.The costs of drilling have risen dramatically,and the reserves just aren't big enough.Obama has taken an insurance policy for the future,to preserve the caribou and subsistence resource,Mr.Struzik told talk show host Diane Rehm.
ANWR is thought to hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil,but it's the cost and risk of getting that oil out.We should take the more cautious approach and protect caribou.I think this is a prudent decision by the President.It's a visionary thing.He's the first Western leader to acknowledge the Arctic is changing and we need to do something about it.The important fact is,the Coastal Plain of ANWR is an important calving ground for the caribou.Restrictions placed on hunters and no development whatsoever on the Coastal Plain-these factors have resulted in the rebound of the Porcupine caribou herd.
There's a great state interest here.If we could learn from the past,the state should have put something in the bank.Nobody seems to learn the lesson that you've got to have an insurance policy.Alaska has motored on as if oil will always sustain their economy.Prudhoe Bay is drying up.In Canada,the Alberta government is now in serious trouble.They're thinking about cutting back on education and health care-and maybe even instituting a sales tax.
Expanded wilderness designation-such would secure the future fate of polar bears,caribou and the food supply of native Alaskans,Mr.Struzik insisted.*
The status of ANWR has been debated since the Reagan administration.Now the Interior Department's Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the refuge is in a 30 day public review period,at the end of which a Record of Decision will be issued and implementation of the Plan can begin.Besides setting aside three new wilderness areas in ANWR,the Plan calls for placing two of the refuge's rivers in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program.The Plan is bitterly opposed by many Alaskans,who feel slighted by the federal government.They do not have the votes in Congress to stop the wilderness protection from taking effect,however-at least until and unless the political landscape in Washington changes even more than it already has.

Marines Exercise Near Controversial Islands

Six Asian countries,including China and the Philippines,lay claim to some of the Spratly Islands.Nonetheless,U.S. and Philippine Marines are holding two weeks of military exercises near the disputed islands.Some 3,000 troops are participating.The most sensitive exercise will be a mock raid by the forces to capture a hostile beach head on the South China Sea.
A U.S. Marine Corps spokesman denied the exercises were aimed at a specific country;they are merely intended to improve regional security capability.
The Spratlys are part of a vast archipelago of more than 750 islands,reefs and atolls off the Philppine and Malaysian coasts in the South China Sea,which China considers to be its territorial waters.The international community doesn't agree with China's expansive concept.
The Spratlys consist of only four square kilometers of land,but the archipelago is flung across more than 425 square kilometers of sea.
The Spratlys are considered important as way marks for territorial claims on natural resources believed to be in and under the South China Sea,including fisheries and oil and gas.A number of the islands are patrolled by small military units of China;Vietnam;Taiwan;Malaysia;and the Philippines,as a way to assert these claims.This has resulted in minor armed clashes over the past thirty years.

Goldman Sachs Upgrades Refiners

Goldman Sachs has upgraded the oil refining sector.Oil will go up to 85 dollars a barrel by the end of the year,Goldman estimates.Oil demand will recover through the end of 2010.

Chukchi Sea Leases

Some environmental groups have objected to the February 6 lease sale for oil and gas drillers in the Chukchi Sea,which is off the northwest coast of Alaska.They are especially concerned about polar bears,which are threatened by the shrinkage of sea ice from global warming.Yet the local residents,especially the aboriginal peoples,have the right to determine their own economic destiny,and,after all ,have been stewards of the area far longer than any organizations have been in existence.