Youth Vote 2000 results , State test scores , Back to School guide , Stock Market Game . Community News Check out this free community publishing area. See what is happening with non-profits around Alaska. You're in a small airplane buzzing through the vast Arctic emptiness. Clouds hang over the snow-crusted tundra.
Sea ice stretches out of sight to the north.
Imagine it, because if you are like 99.99 percent of Americans, you will never see this place yourself. Imagine it, because if you don't, then others will do so for you. This is the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the idea of a place can be as important as its reality. As debate about oil drilling here revives, the coastal plain's fate will depend on which image of it prevails in far-off circles of power and public opinion. That is why, before the airplane touches down and Arctic reality blasts in at 25 below, it is time for a tour of images.