The fish will go away. But as Eskimo official Oliver Leavitt told Tom Carter of The Washington Times this month, the much-feared caribou diaspora never happened. Far from running out of caribou, for example, the area is now teeming with them. From just 3,000 caribou in 1970, the Central Arctic Herd pictured nearby grew to almost 20,000 as of 1999. The projects may not be the caribou's idea of Viagra, but the oil pipelines, built on surfaces elevated above the plain, do provide a platform on which animals can find relief from the clouds of mosquitos and black flies below.
Bears even walk atop the pipeline to go about their daily errands.
The 8,000 Eskimos now are so happy with the results that the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. which represents them is lobbying to open a tiny portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and development. For them it means jobs and revenue that would allow the community to enjoy such luxuries as schools and medical facilities that citizens in the lower 48 states take for granted. For the rest of the country, it would mean less dependence on foreign oil. None of it may happen. The paperwork is done.