Exporting Pollution
On Friday, Charles Krauthammer wrote an excellent article on drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. He made a point that had not occurred to me about the consequences of not using resources within the United States. He wrote:
Forbidding drilling [in ANWR] does not prevent despoliation. It merely exports it. The crude oil we’re not getting from the Arctic we import instead from places like the Niger Delta, where millions live and where the resulting pollution and oil spillages poison the lives of many of the world’s most wretchedly poor.
We risk the health of Nigerian children so we can feel good about preserving the habitat of flea-ridden caribou. Conservation is a worthy cause, but sometimes its benefits need to be balanced with its costs. It’s important to save the caribou; it’s more important to protect the people of the Niger Delta.
