Entry #1
Author: Rebecca Pasok
Title: To Drill or Not to Drill.
Publication: The College Writer.
Summary.
It is not easy to answer question to drill or not to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Some environmental experts support arguments against drilling some of them tell that drilling will not hurt people and wild animals. At the same time there is the considerable disagreement about the accessible amount of the ANWR oil. But, in any case those supplies would be not enough to ease our dependence on Middle Eastern countries for oil.
Therefore, the right question we really should ask is how to provide energy for everyone, now and in the future. Many people believe that the best option for Americans is to develop new technologies. Also, very important part of the problem is reducing our dependency on fossil fuels themselves.
Developing energy-saving technologies and choosing lifestyle oriented to conserve energy will help people to save environment both now and in the future.
It is not easy to answer question to drill or not to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Some environmental experts support arguments against drilling some of them tell that drilling will not hurt people and wild animals. At the same time there is the considerable disagreement about the accessible amount of the ANWR oil. But, in any case those supplies would be not enough to ease our dependence on Middle Eastern countries for oil.
Therefore, the right question we really should ask is how to provide energy for everyone, now and in the future. Many people believe that the best option for Americans is to develop new technologies. Also, very important part of the problem is reducing our dependency on fossil fuels themselves.
Developing energy-saving technologies and choosing lifestyle oriented to conserve energy will help people to save environment both now and in the future.
Response.
Even if we drill in ANWR, that would give us little in terms of energy independence. Therefore, in author’s opinion, our main efforts should be directed towards development of new energy-producing technologies and a systemic approach to energy-saving lifestyle. While
development of new technologies is best left to professionals, the question is what can each of us
do in our lives to decrease our personal energy consumption.
For example, in our family, we set the thermostat in our house a bit higher in the summer and a bit lower in the winter so that our hitter/air-conditioner unit is not running when unnecessary. We also winterized our doors and windows. We keep an eye on our interior lights – we turn them off when we don’t need them. We use washer and dryer only with full load. In summer, we turn on our sprinklers late at night. We paved the strip of land in front of our house with stones so that we use less water. In our family we have a single fairly fuel-efficient car which one of us drives while the other uses public transportation to get to work.
In short, we strive to minimize our personal consumption of energy and other natural resources. But there are limits as to how far we can go in that. We still have to do our shopping, and many stores are not very close to us so we have to drive there and so on. Still, given the magnitude of the problem, we ask ourselves if we can do more…
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