One of President Donald Trump’s many visions for the United States of America includes the “energy dominance” vision, which includes massive increases in fossil fuel production by utilizing natural resources in public lands and national parks.
To follow through with this ideal, as of Feb. 18 secretarial orders were given to take away unnecessary protections of these lands so that the government can legally extract their natural resources. The reason many national parks exist is to protect the natural resources, and people across the country and students at RHS have expressed concerns about inevitable habitat destruction.
Oil spills, the most infamous results of oil drilling, were the root cause of contamination of agricultural lands, water sources and marine ecosystems, as well as a notable contribution to global warming.
This issue is a cause for concern due to the negative impacts; for example, air pollution and oil spills have already damaged the environment in the past and are costly to clean up, not to mention habitat degradation, said Danina Nguyen, 10, social media manager for the Student Environmental Association (SEA) club.
The consequences for wildlife ecosystems have been devastating, but oil drilling has also threatened public health.
“Not only is there always a risk of oil spills, all of the infrastructure needed for the drilling (roads, buildings, equipment, etc.) is going to disrupt wildlife habitats, fragmenting the natural landscapes, destroying natural fauna and contaminating water sources,” said Tim Pate, AP Biology teacher and SEA club sponsor. “All of these are going to affect the parks’ ecosystems and with that the people that live or work in that area are going to be adversely affected.”
Although there would be many benefits economically, people argued that they may not be worth the consequences.
“While the oil production may open job opportunities, economic growth, etc, people should consider the environmental damage that this will cause, which is near unfixable,” said Sophia Ryan, 12, SEA club president and AP Environmental Science student.
Oil drilling can provide jobs, increase supply, and overall help the local economy, but national parks have been set aside to protect for future generations, so it’s important that other reservoirs of oil with less environmental risks are used instead, Pate said.
Altogether, Trump’s fossil-fuels plan will help the economy, but it may be at the expense of the few healthy ecosystems left in the country.
“It is really unfortunate that there is misinformation of how oil drilling won’t directly affect ecosystems and environments, because the reality is that not only our national parks, but all surrounding areas are threatened by this,” Ryan said. “I personally think we need to prioritize the well-being of our land and our wildlife, and there must be a better alternative than oil drilling.”
