Monday, October 11, 2010

Oil in the Arctic

The Arctic is a very diverse place. In fact, a quarter of the world's Arctic land and waters are found right here in Canada. It is rich in petroleum as well as many metals, such as gold, silver and lead. Canada is also home to about 70% of the world's polar bear population. Sadly, due to the melting polar ice caps and tundra, many of the inhabitants of the Arctic, such as the polar bear, will soon be left homeless due to global warming. However, the World Wildlife Fund is doing it's best to conserve this diverse land.

The World Wildlife Fund is an organization that works towards conserving the world's biological diversity, ensures that the use of renewable, natural resources is sustainable and promotes the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. In fact, the World Wildlife Fund has already succeeded in many of their projects around the world, such as the 'Bowhead Whale Sanctuary' in Nunavut.

The World Wildlife Fund has many concerns about the Arctic, but one of their main ones is the fact that the Arctic holds about a quarter of the world's remaining petroleum reserves and that in a few years, oil companies will start drilling in the ecologically-sensitive Beaufort Sea. This is a concern, not only because there's a risk of an oil spill to occur, but as well as the fact that if an oil spill were to occur, the harsh conditions of the Beaufort Sea would make it difficult for emergency response crews to make any impact. As well, there no known solutions to cleaning up oil in ice-covered waters.

Thankfully, the World Wildlife Fund is partnering up with responsible industry leaders to show how this development can occur while benefiting local communities and respecting the integrity of the Arctic before the drilling occurs to ensure that if complications do arise, there will be solutions. The WWF is calling for a consistent set of regulations to protect the environment, as well as the surrounding communities and other marine companies. The regulations must address the gap if there were to be an oil spill. The WWF also testifies before many groups, to inform them about their view on this situation. 

Overall, the World Wildlife Fund is working to preserve the Arctic before any oil is drilled, showing their concern and passion for the environment.

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6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. As I read numerous bio blogs I have noticed that most of them involve the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). It is really nice to see that an organization is so committed to saving it's home and environment. I hope the WWF finds success in the Arctic as it helps both the animals living there and us as well. It would help the animals because they can keep their habitat and it would help us by preventing the flooding of some countries in the world.

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  3. What the World Wildlife Fund is doing is right. Oil companies should be aware that they're going to disturb the vulnerable ecosystem of the Arctic. Also all of us should be aware that the WWF needs our help in order to get our oil without conflicting with the Arctic environment. We should also be aware on how much oil we consume since we're running out on resources.

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  4. I am very glad to see an organization so dedicated in saving our planet. It's great to know that once the World Wildlife Fund sees a potential problem, they are already working on possible solutions. I really hope that if an oil spill is ever to occur in the Arctic, the WWF is already well prepared and ready to help out.

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  5. Many blogs talked about the World Wildlife Fund but this one is different. It talked about a specific project of the organization. It talked about how they help animals in the Arctic region. It's good that you researched on this because it will help people raise awareness that there are still animals in danger in the Arctic region. Normally there wouldn't be any danger because there's not a lot of people who lives in the Arctic. Pollution is in places where there's a lot of people but this helped me realized that pollution can travel anywhere and affect anything.

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  6. The World Wildlife Fund is a selfless organization that devote themselves to helping not only our lives, but the lives of animals as well. They can't do it alone. We all have to help in order to help keep this organization alive and running, after all, they do it out of their own love for the world, not for beneficial goals.

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