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Young preaches resource development in the Arctic
People need to adapt to the changing climate, rather than try to preserve the status quo, Congressman Don Young told the World Trade Center Alaska in Anchorage Aug. 19.
“Don’t give me this fear and gloom that the world is coming to an end because there is a change in climate, and a change in the thickness of the ice,” Young said, commenting that there was no ice age 11,000 years ago and saying that polar bears had survived that period in the Earth’s history.
And part of adaptation to the changing climate in the Arctic should involve the extraction of minerals which are now becoming accessible, thanks to receding ice, he said.
“Most of the minerals today that man uses are above the Arctic Circle,” Young said.
Allow extraction People need to challenge the government, to allow mineral extraction in the Arctic, he said.
“We will have a presence in the Arctic,” Young said. “The Coast Guard is getting deeply involved. And there will be the transportation of those minerals if we’re allowed to bring them to work for the good of this nation and the good of this world.”
And regions such as the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea hold vast oil reserves that could reduce the U.S. consumption of foreign-sourced fossil fuels, thus alleviating one of the United States’ biggest economic challenges, he said.
Mineral development will require new infrastructure — primarily ports, with access roads for transporting products to tidewater, and railroads.
“I’m looking forward to the infrastructure that’s necessary in the Arctic … and that’s what I think we as a state should be concentrating on now,” Young said.
—Alan Bailey
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