Friday, April 22, 2005
Conservation Kills
Wow, according to Google's homepage it's Earth Day already. It just comes faster every year. Last week, I posted a link to a website which quoted several animal-rights activists saying that human lives are of equal or lesser value to human life. Over the weekend, I found a story in The Guardian that reveals this kind of mindset in action.
In Alaska, there is a village of about 700 people named King Cove. The closest village, Cold Bay, is about 20 miles away. The population of Cold Bay is about 100, but it has the facilities needed to transport injured or sick people to the hospital. King Cove does not have this luxury, and in the past, they've been forced to hitch a ride on fishing boats to reach Cold Bay if they needed any kind of medical attention. There have already been 12 deaths attributed to the lack of connectivity between the two villages.
King Cove, and Cold Bay are connected by land, but wouldn't you know it, somebody has decided that the land between them is a wildlife refuge. Apparently, to lay down a twenty foot wide gravel road through the 315,000 acre refuge would have undoubtedly disasterous effects on the habits of whatever the heck lives in Alaska. Sure, people are dying, but we can't interrupt the migratory patterns of the irreplacable black brant. I don't even know what a brant is, I assume it's some kind of goose, and it's obviously more important to us than the citizens of King Cove. If you ask me, allowing conservation groups to have control over decisions like this is irresponsible on the part of the U.S. Congress.
So here we are, 12 lives later, and Congress finally decided to do something about the situation. Their plan is to spend close to 9 million dollars on a hovercraft that can take residents across the bay without disrupting the brank or whatever stupid animal migrates over the area where they would have preferred to just lay down a gravel road. I guess if the conservationists can't keep from "disturbing" animals at the expense of human lives, a $35 million transportation plan will have to do.
In Alaska, there is a village of about 700 people named King Cove. The closest village, Cold Bay, is about 20 miles away. The population of Cold Bay is about 100, but it has the facilities needed to transport injured or sick people to the hospital. King Cove does not have this luxury, and in the past, they've been forced to hitch a ride on fishing boats to reach Cold Bay if they needed any kind of medical attention. There have already been 12 deaths attributed to the lack of connectivity between the two villages.
King Cove, and Cold Bay are connected by land, but wouldn't you know it, somebody has decided that the land between them is a wildlife refuge. Apparently, to lay down a twenty foot wide gravel road through the 315,000 acre refuge would have undoubtedly disasterous effects on the habits of whatever the heck lives in Alaska. Sure, people are dying, but we can't interrupt the migratory patterns of the irreplacable black brant. I don't even know what a brant is, I assume it's some kind of goose, and it's obviously more important to us than the citizens of King Cove. If you ask me, allowing conservation groups to have control over decisions like this is irresponsible on the part of the U.S. Congress.
So here we are, 12 lives later, and Congress finally decided to do something about the situation. Their plan is to spend close to 9 million dollars on a hovercraft that can take residents across the bay without disrupting the brank or whatever stupid animal migrates over the area where they would have preferred to just lay down a gravel road. I guess if the conservationists can't keep from "disturbing" animals at the expense of human lives, a $35 million transportation plan will have to do.
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Since when does a hovercraft cost 9 Million Dollars? heck, They could get over a dozen cigarette boats for that price. But both would be useless in real rough weather...
Better yet and the Congress would get more applause if they tell the environmentalists to go crawl under a rock and build the road.
Better yet and the Congress would get more applause if they tell the environmentalists to go crawl under a rock and build the road.
They did pass the energy bill that opened up ANWR. You'd think if they would allow us to drill for oil in an environmentally protected area, building a gravel emergency access road wouldn't be seen as a problem.
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