Wayne Gilchrest: “I am here to speak now on another perspective. First of all, I think when we use this oil up, we will be more dependent…”

“I am here to speak now on another perspective. First of all, I think when we use this oil up, we will be more dependent on foreign oil. Once this is gone, a tiny fraction of the world's oil and when it is gone, we will be more dependent on oil from the Middle East and other places. But I am speaking on behalf of the effects of the human environment here, and I want to quote an Arctic elder. "The land can tell us everything we want to know." We might think of an Eskimo saying that. "The only problem is that it does not have a voice. We cannot hear it. But the spirit of the land is always there." Many parts of our country that depend on hunting and fishing also have agriculture and forestry. This is one of the few places on the planet where there is no agriculture, there is no forestry. The entire culture, nutritionally and economically, depends on whales, polar bears, seals, and caribou. They depend on what the pristine wilderness gives them. Even a 2,000-acre imprint would cause, because of the sound and because of the disturbance, the migration routes of all these things to change. This one 2,000 acres in this narrow area has a great impact, a difficult impact on the culture of this community. So I am speaking on behalf of the culture of the northern Native Alaskans.”