Drilling in a deserted wasteland is a no-brainer. If you ask me, they should drill for oil, start some land-fills, and store depleted uranium there. But hey, that's just me. For anybody who thinks it really does need to be preserved in it's barren, useless state, we can pretty much guarantee it'll be just as bleak and desolate for years after the oil is gone. To show you why, I've worked up the following reference. If there are any drastic flaws in my logic, please let me know:
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is 19,049,236 acres. Yes, that's over 19 million acres. The area to be developed for oil drilling is 2,000 acres. Now, I've seen a few visual representations of what a percentage that is, but... well, they seemed off. The drilled area always looked to be a LOT bigger than what I imagined one nine-thousandth of the area would look like. So I worked it out myself. 19,049,236 acres divided by 2000 acres = 9,524.6. That's 9,524.6 to one. Shall we do this visually? I'll make each acre one pixel in a digital picture. OK, to make the picture big enough to see, we'll do 9,524.6 x 4 = 38098.4 acres. The square root of that rounds 195 pixels on each side of a square for ANWR, and 4 pixels for the area to be drilled. I've created a square in an ugly grayish, greenish brown (the color of ANWR) and the oil drilling area in black since that's the color of oil in all it's demonic evil. The contrast would really look nothing like this, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt here. So what's that look like?
<---- The little black spot there is 4 pixles among 38,021 baby-food green pixles, and that is what those 2,000 acres would look like. Just a shame that we'll ruin the place, isn't it? A little spot in a barren wasteland that nobody ever visits might have some heavy equipment parked in it, and a bunch of people get so worked up that even the "republican" candidate is afraid to include drilling there in the plan. I can't believe there is even a question. I think we should drill pretty much everywhere. I sure wish there was oil under my back yard because I'd throw a derrick in there tomorrow, home owner's association be damned. In the mean-time I've gotten a "Drill here, drill now, pay less" bumper sticker. If you feel like doing so yourself, go here: www.americansolutions.com14 Aug 08 update: This guy has some great pictures.
Who exactly is your audience for this latest post? You have presented a logical argument supported by facts that will resonate with like-minded people, but if you are attempting to reach the liberals and the green weanies, you will need to find an argument that appeals to their emotions. Facts are merely inconvenient to them and will be completely disregarded. I would suggest that you "discover" some endangered species (preferably something cute and cuddly) that won't survive unless we begin drilling in ANWR immediately to provide the hapless creatures with an appropriate habitat. Oh--and don't be inhibited by any sense of scientific integrity that might get in the way of your ultimate goal. After all, the welfare and security of American citizens is insignificant in comparison to the importance of preserving a vast national wasteland.
ReplyDeleteHeh... I wish I could appeal to emotions without using logic, but that just isn't my forte. Maybe I'll try doing a tongue-in-cheek version that does that. Thanks for reading. Tell your friends. :-)
ReplyDeletehey, I read somewhere that the caribou in Alaska really like the warm pipelines that are used to transport oil to ports. Maybe that's an angle to work for the environMENTALists?
ReplyDeleteBut to be honest, I don't see why we should steep down to their level of irrationality. We need to win people over by convincing them we are right instead of accepting their premises.