Stop The Willow Project: A Necessary Collective Effort For Climate Justice
President Joe Biden has approved the controversial oil-drilling exploratory camp to be constructed in Alaska on March 13th, 2023 and there has been public outrage over this decision. Joe Biden began his candidacy promising the population as a majority of USA citizens believe in climate change and that it is a significant problem and that it is happening now. If most of the population believes this, why would the same man approve an oil-drilling operation on federal land two years later? The Willow Project is irreconcilable with President Biden’s climate commitment to a 50-52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas pollution below 2005 levels by 2030 and meeting net-zero emissions by 2050. This decision is a devastating setback in efforts to stop more negative effects of climate change. This decision needs to be undone. Now.
The Willow Project proposed by ConocoPhillips is an $8 billion plan to extract 600 million barrels of oil from pristine federal land in Alaska. Over the next 30 years, the Willow Project could pump between 278 and 287 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution into our atmosphere. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of 74 to 76 new coal-fired power plants. Not only are these statistics horrible but that’s not all. The Willow Project is planned to be about 36 miles from Nuiqsut, a small Native Alaskan community that is already surrounded by oil and gas activity. So not only is this decision devastating for the future of the world’s climate, but it will increase the rates of respiratory illnesses for the indigenous communities in the area due to the increased black carbon pollution that comes from fossil fuel production.
We need to act now. We cannot let this decision proceed and we need to find every avenue and every method to do so. Although, before this decision was freely made by Biden Tik Tok activists spoke out against it, urging petition signatures to be sent to the White House and thousands of people have been spreading this information about the devastation that the Willow Project will ensue. I myself have been sending links to petitions, encouraging letters to be sent to government officials, and spreading awareness about what this project will mean for our future. Trust me, I am no big influencer like some of the other people opposing this development, but I am a voter and an American citizen and I refuse to do nothing while the promise of a future for me and my future generations vanishes. We don’t need more jobs created under fossil fuel production. We need jobs created for renewable energy production and facilities. When will the government take this seriously? When will environmental health and human lives be worth more than capilist ideals?
I encourage the American people to not give up against The Willow Project.
Write to the White House:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Contact Advocacy groups!
Here are just a few:
Sierra Club, the Alaska Wilderness League, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Friends of the Earth.
Join their grassroots campaigns!
Get in touch with your local representatives:
Linked is the House of Representatives Website to find out who your local representatives are. Let your position be known.
USE SOCIAL MEDIA:
Social media is one of our strongest warriors for environmental issues and the spread of information. Make sure you are well-researched so that you can spread the right message to the country, your community, and your family even. Avoid spreading misinformation by making sure that your sources are credible. A great way to determine that is if your source has anything to gain like ad revenue from your clicks. If so, there could be some embellishment and that is something we want to avoid when bringing attention to environmental issues especially when it comes to our climate crisis. Post on Instagram (use popular hashtags to bring it to the top of the search bar), Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Reddit, create videos, do live streams on all those platforms, and live stream on Twitch and Youtube! Try your hardest to reach every audience possible once you are well-versed in this cause. Debate with others, and join debates. You could potentially be the reason that we get just enough media attention on this decision that the Biden administration will have to address it.
Most importantly, provide the resources that helped you understand the severity of what a project like Willow will do to our planet. #StopWillow
