Yet, even as pressure to exploit the refuge builds, uncertainties remain. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a place remote from human settlements, still untouched by human hands. Any oil production will take at least ten years to accomplish, and will do nothing to respond to current concerns over gasoline and energy prices. California gets less than one percent of its electrical energy from oil. A small increase in automobile efficiency would have a more immediate, profound, and lasting impact than any exploitation in the Arctic.
Some wildlife species can tolerate disturbance.
Oil pollution is deadly to coastal marine birds and mammals, and some whales appear to avoid the Prudhoe Bay oil complex just west of the refuge. Migratory birds from every state but Hawaii breed along the coastal plain. A recent WCS study has revealed serious gaps in our understanding of key Arctic wildlife species and their responses to disturbance. Many of these species are already experiencing new stresses associated with global warming and the melting of the Arctic icecap. We cannot create more wilderness.