Driving wilderness to extinction

It’s all about reference.

Driving was once measured in distance -- 52 miles to Los Angeles, 440 to San Francisco. Vegas -- 560 round trip.

In the ‘70s, as Orange County sprouted freeways and tract houses, the distance between places shifted to a measurement of time. Twenty minutes here. An hour there.

Time, however, has lost its currency. Cost has become the point of reference. What is the price per gallon? How many gallons per tank? How many miles per gallon?

In the past eight weeks, I’ve purchased gasoline as far north as Sequim, Wash., as far east as Flagstaff, Ariz., and as far south as La Paz, Baja California. Wild price fluctuations make it difficult to believe it’s been the same product. Granted, California has an added emission component that both lowers the octane and increases our price, but historically that number has been between 5 and 10 cents per gallon.

Katrina took the heart out of major refineries and sent the petroleum prices skyward. In one week we all watched helplessly as the little numbers on the gas islands shifted from the high twos to the low threes -- and kept climbing. Northern California was running around $3.50. Oregon offered immediate relief at $3.20. Washington floated down around $2.80.

Driving home from Flagstaff, I saw a sign for $2.70 as I passed through Kingman. Since I still had about an eighth of a tank, I decided to wait. Bad choice! Needles: $3.90 at all five gas stations. A scant 40 miles between towns and $1.20 per gallon difference. At 22 gallons, that’s $26.20 per tank.

In October, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil, said its earnings jumped 75%. Royal Dutch (Shell) said its earnings increased 68%, and Marathon Oil said its earnings more than tripled. This press release turns my stomach.

Down the Baja peninsula, I bought gas in Constitucion. It’s a small town, far from freeways and easy fuel resupply. The price for premium? $1.90. Not bad gas. Not inferior gas. Just cheaper gas.

But the oil companies want more. In the throes of their “suffering,” you can hear their continued cry (those poor folks with no profits) to open drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This frosts me more than the gouging at the pump, because the refuge holds a special place in my heart. It is true wilderness.

It is a completely intact ecosystem, a vast network of mountains and tundra-laden valleys that spill into plains as the land approaches the Beaufort Sea. It is home to the Porcupine caribou herd, which needs its vastness for survival. The shoreline and shelf are summering homes for migratory birds -- sandpipers, plovers, geese, eiders, tundra swans and arctic terns. This is their nursery, the place they have returned to for thousands of years to lay their eggs and nurture their young. Polar bears live here -- their cubs born on the shore -- and grizzlies. Wolves and porcupines. Foxes.

This is a true national treasure in the same category as Yellowstone or Yosemite, and it was set aside in the refuge system because of its uniqueness. It simply doesn’t have the pedestrian traffic, and so a lesser number of minds have knowledge of its significance and staggering beauty. Fewer voices join together to call for its protection.

The area proposed for development is the northwest part of the refuge, the so-called 1002 Area lying just east of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. The 1002 Area was included in the refuge because of its pristine condition and essential role in the regional ecosystem.

Is there enough oil in the 1002 Area to make a meaningful difference? The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there are probably somewhere between 3 billion and 12 billion economically recoverable barrels there. If we accept the middle range of the estimate and use the average national consumption rate of petroleum of a billion barrels a month, development of the 1002 Area could buy us a total of eight months of additional consumption. But maybe even less than that.

A 12-year-old from New York, Savannah Rose Walters, was recently in Washington, D.C., to plead for protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It seems this plucky youngster determined that improperly inflated tires were sucking the fuel efficiency from the heart of cars.

The numbers are staggering. Due to improper inflation, we waste 4 million gallons of gasoline every day. Ms. Walters founded an organization called “Pump ‘Em Up” and estimated that if the 600 million cars currently on the road simply checked their tires, efficiency would improve by 3% -- or in U.S. terms, nine cents per gallon.

We have trampled most corners of the earth, and when the wild lands are gone, they are just that -- gone. The ravages of oil drilling scar for hundreds of years. There are other options, but the oil companies have a big voice and friends in high places. Unable to directly win sufficient votes, their latest ploy has been insert a provision for drilling in the arctic refuge in the massive 2006 Budget Reconciliation Bill. This bill cannot be filibustered or blocked in the Senate. It will likely pass, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily win.

It’s all about reference. If you love wild places, let your voice be heard. It is possible to lose the barriers to drilling but still prevent both the assignment of leases and the first cut of a road. Before this incomparable wilderness habitat is destroyed, consider carefully what will be lost, and choose a personal course of action.

* Catharine Cooper can be reached at ccooper@cooperdesign.net.

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