Oil Drilling: Harmful of Helpful

Author's Note: This piece is a persuasive essay that has to do with whether or not we should drill for oil in Alaska. I will be explaining why I think that we should not drill for oil in Alaska. 
 
If you have ever thought about Alaska, chances are you have not pictured workers with big machines and drills looking for oil. No, you have probably pictured all of the people dressed warm in their fur clothes or those cute baby snow bunnies hopping around without a care in the world. Maybe it was the little kids running around with their sled dogs playing in the frozen tundra, their cheeks rosy and their runny noses. If we drill for oil in ANWR, all of this will go away; there will be no more fun and games. Big machines and workers will take over this winter wonderland. It will be gone, and for what? You, and your family, your neighbors, everyone in the United States, all because we need more oil provided for us. We are using it up way too fast. Drilling is wrong and everyone knows that; it is somewhere deep down in their hearts, but we Americans are too selfish to admit it. 

Oil drilling is a big project, not to mention costly. We could use this money for other things like putting it towards figuring out how to get rid of using oil in our everyday lives. We would also have to pay for all of the workers to live up there and pay them for their services. According to CNN Money, Time and  Science Eccentric magazines, About.com, and many others, drilling would not lower the prices of gas. Oil is an important everyday resource in America, but we could be discovering ways reduce demand instead of using it all up on pointless things. Using wind, solar power, water, and even vegetable oil to power our homes, cars, and create electricity are things that some people in America are already doing, so why not everyone? The US is the leading user of oil in the world and alone we use 21 million barrels of oil a day, compared to China, the second leading oil user,  which only uses 6.9 million barrels a day and Japan,the third leading oil user in the world) which only uses 5.4 million barrels a day. Our oil consumption is out of control and soon we will be damaging our environment in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, otherwise known as ANWR.

If we drill for oil in  ANWR, we could do serious damage to the land, plants, resources, and the animals that all live and grow there. The government and the workers who are applying for the jobs have to think not only about themselves, but about all of the people and animals that live in ANWR. They don’t know if they would have to abandon their habitats because of the disturbances that the oil drilling would cause for the animals and the environment. Not only would we be forcing these animals away, but we would be losing lots of the natural resources that come from ANWR. According to Live Science, if an oil spill happened it could be fatal to almost all of the marine life that inhabits Alaska like seals, sea lions, sea otters, whales, polar bears and all of the birds that live there as well, not to mention how the people of ANWR feel about this matter.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been protected since 1977 to prevent drilling there because there are not many places left in the US that aren’t already providing oil. The people of ANWR feel that the drilling is wrong according to Ecoworld because they feel that they would be greatly and badly affected by this change. It would disrupt the natural routine that the people have established there. They would have to change lots of large details in their lives and a lot of people may have to leave because of the disturbance it would cause. If you put yourself in these people’s shoes then I think that you would agree that drilling in ANWR is wrong.

Politicians always think that they know what is best, but they don’t because deep down in their hearts they know that we should not drill for oil in ANWR. No matter what age you are, or how much experience you have with anything, does anyone ever really know the right thing to do? We can say that we do, but even though no one likes to admit it, no one is perfect.