• Positive: Organisations like Arctic National Wildlife Refuge( ANWR) and people such as Leonardo De Caprio are ambassadors for climate change and use Kaktovik as an example of why we need to change our attitudes towards energy sources
• Precarious balance of tourism and indigenousànot encroaching on tradition or being invasive but advocating to wider world importance of preserving it
• Mining, oil drilling and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, TV shows like Ice Road Truckers along the Dalton Highway and FIFO workers in Prudhoe Bay in the mining industry o Trans-Alaska Pipeline: Transports oil from its extraction in Prudhoe Bay and delivers it to the northern-most ice-free point of Alaska: Valdezàstretches 800 miles and almost directly follows the Dalton Highway, constructionà1975-7
§ Impacted aesthetic of tundra slightly, unpopular with indigenous peoples and runs the risk of spilling and interfering with biophysical interactions
§ Oil discovered in Alaska: 1968
Suggested management strategies
1. Gradual increase in renewable energy sources as a precursor to gradual decrease in reliance on fossil fuels and oil extracted from region a. Could have wind turbines or hydroelectric poweràincrease of this as already seen in Toksook Bay on the Bering Sea b. Will see limitation of impact of progressive climate change and greenhouse effect on the tundraàtherefore less permafrost melting i. HOWEVER, not easily done now that America is very pro non-renewable energy sources and even if we halt all fossil fuel burning now temperatures will continue to rise for at least another century
2. Reduction of large trucks crossing the tundra a. Increasing air pollution by trucks begins to decrease, not as much pressure and compaction of permafrost and saferàvery dangerous for truckies to drive along the Dalton Highwayàtrucks can get caught in breaking ice, hit wildlife etc b. Trucks are often transporting goods between Prudhoe Bay’ s oil and mining industries and the rest of the state