Man is challenged merely to respect and preserve that natural majesty.
From the mountains of the Brooks Range you can see a land of enormous geometry and light - a place where the sun beats down 24 hours daily during the summer. Oil and gas companies see dollar signs. Although nearly half of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was set aside as wilderness in 1980, the coastal plain was omitted pending a decision on oil and gas exploration. The oil industry has been trying for years to obtain permission to drill there. There have been various estimates of how much oil lies below the coastal plain.