Native people of the Gwichin Nation formed a human banner on the banks of Alaska's Porcupine River in in 2010 to protest environmental damage done by oil firms. 'Around the Arctic there is neither the technology nor the capacity to respond to oil accidents,' says Alexander Shestakov, the head of the WWF Arctic Program. REUTERS / Camila Roy-Spectral Q

By Margaret Kriz Hobson
28 January 2012 A group of 573 scientists today released a letter (PDF) to President Obama asking him to stop oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic waters until experts can study the proposed oil development’s impacts on sensitive Arctic ecosystems and native subsistence activities. … “We want to make it a high priority for the administration to really focus in on the safety, the science, the challenges in the Arctic and the need for more of a comprehensive innovative research and monitoring program that guides decisions about where and how drilling can take place,” said Marilyn Heiman, director of Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Arctic program. Pew’s campaign to slow oil development in the U.S. Arctic began in December with online ads and broadcast commercials, including advertisements after the State of the Union address on CNN and MSNBC. Next week, the group is also running ads in The New York Times and other media outlets. [Here’s the text of the letter.]

January 23, 2012
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500 Secretary Salazar
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240 Dear President Obama and Secretary Salazar, Decisions about resource extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf should be based on sound scientific information. Your administration first displayed a strong commitment to science during the President’s inaugural address in 2009. This commitment was underscored by Secretary Salazar’s announcement on March 31, 2010 when, as a part of a three-pronged approach to Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas development, he directed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to conduct an evaluation of science needs and gaps in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. The evaluation would help the Department of the Interior determine how best to “…conduct scientific analyses to gather the information we need to develop resources in the right places and the right ways.”1 The USGS completed its task in June 2011, releasing USGS Circular 1370: An Evaluation of the Science Needs to Inform Decisions on Outer Continental Shelf Energy Development in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Alaska. The report is commendably objective and broad-ranging. We are grateful to the Secretary of the Interior for commissioning it and to the authors of and contributors to the report for their hard work. The report’s 62 recommendations indicate many pressing needs including:

  • further research on the physical and biological environment of the region,
  • studies on specific aspects of the life history of important species,
  • the development of a comprehensive monitoring program that can detect environmental change and identify the drivers of such change,
  • the synthesis of existing information in order to answer key questions including the identification of ecologically significant areas,
  • an assessment of cumulative impacts from multiple sources,
  • greater inclusion of the traditional knowledge of Arctic residents,
  • the creation of a data management system that provides timely sharing of information from all research activities, and
  • a closer integration of scientific studies and findings with decisions being made about offshore industrial activity.

We, the undersigned 573 research scientists, call upon the Administration to follow through on its commitment to science by acting on the USGS recommendations. Doing so prior to authorizing new oil and gas activity in the Arctic Ocean will respect the national significance of the environment and cultures of U.S. Arctic waters and demonstrate the value that your Administration places on having a sound scientific basis for managing industrial development of the Outer Continental Shelf. [Signatures]

Hundreds of scientists ask Obama to halt drilling