Development and Indigenous Communities

Image from: http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/eskimo-and-environmentalist-groups-challenge-shells-alaskan-offshore-drilling-plan1218/

Indigenous communities are often threatened by development. It may not directly threaten the lives of these people, but by threatening the environment in which they live, eat, work, play, and pray, development might as well be threatening the very heart and soul of the community.  These communities function with nature, and rely on place-based knowledge and traditional environmental knowledge to continue.  It is a slow, balanced, communal way of life when compared to the fast-paced Western society that is so focused on individual advancement and wealth.

The Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope is a perfect example of an indigenous community threatened by development.  For thousands of years, this Native Alaskan group has relied on whaling and marine mammals for "food and for culture."  In 2009, this subsistence way of life was threatened by a Shell Oil subsidiary's plan to start drilling in the Beaufort and Chuckchi seas - home to the whales on which the Inupiat rely.  This plan for drilling is an excellent example of development because it directly threatens the livelihoods and lifestyles of the Inupiat community.  The event raised many concerns among the Inupiats, such as the environmental risks resulting from the drilling - possible oil spills and dumping of drilling mud and wastes.  The possible pollutants could upset entire ecosystems in the Beaufort and Chuckchi seas.  

One of the articles listed at the bottom is heatingoil.com.  At the end of the article, author Steven Zweig states: "The Arctic is believed to hold 90 billion barrels of oil, over 8 billion of them in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea alone. Given that there are less than 50,000 Native Alaskans in total, a great many of whom are not dependent on whaling, it is a fair question to ask whether development that could help reduce oil prices and increase U.S. energy independence should be held up to protect the subsistence lifestyle of a comparatively small number of people—or would it be better to simply give those people a share of the resulting revenues?"  

Should the livelihoods and subsistence lifestyle of these native peoples be sacrificed for profit? One could argue that it is a sacrifice that must be made for the advancement of society.  But do we want a to be a society that is a mass consuming machine? A society that hungers for more resources and more commodities? Do we want to develop in a manner that destroys the natural environment?  We want to be moving away from reliance on fossil fuels, not only because the drilling process is degrading the environment, but also because the emissions that result from the use of these fossil fuels is degrading the environment.  We should be moving towards  a society that is reliant on sustainable resources, so as to preserve the environment for generations to come.   

To read more about the Inupiat community and Alaskan offshore drilling:

http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/eskimo-and-environmentalist-groups-challenge-shells-alaskan-offshore-drilling-plan1218/


http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8122&Itemid=79


http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.119-a116