US elections for Congress

The victory of the Democratic Party in the US elections for Congress can mean the decisive turning-point in the struggle over oil-drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) for the Gwich´in Indians in Alaska. By contrast to the Republican Party the Democrats have for a long time been supporting the preservation of this nature reserve, which has been termed the "Serengeti of the Arctic". "It is only if the ANWR, one of the oldest nature reserves in the USA, remains safe from the oil lobby that the Gwich´in Indians, who number some 7000, have a chance of preserving their traditional way of life", said a statement of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on Wednesday.

The Gwich´in remain up to the present day dependent on the 130,000 animals in the porcupine caribou herd, which bring up their young in the ANWR. The construction of the infrastructure alone which is necessary for the oil drilling causes such a disturbance for the animals that they change their migration paths and thus become inaccessible for the Indians.

President George W. Bush wants with the opening of domestic oil-fields to make his country more independent of oil imports from countries like Iran or Venezuela and to lower the petrol prices. For this purpose he is ready to sacrifice even nature reserves. However the oil in the ANWR, the last untouched nature paradise in the USA, would only cover the US demand for 6 months according to independent studies. The reduction in the price of petrol would according to environmentalists be no more than one cent.

The Republican Party has since 1995 been trying with new bills in Congress to remove the protected status of the ANWR. Their last success was in the spring when they scored a victory in the House of Representatives, which then had a Republican majority. However laws require the agreement of both houses of Congress. An agreement for this projec

The Gwich´in remain up to the present day dependent on the 130,000 animals in the porcupine caribou herd, which bring up their young in the ANWR. The construction of the infrastructure alone which is necessary for the oil drilling causes such a disturbance for the animals that they change their migration paths and thus become inaccessible for the Indians.

President George W. Bush wants with the opening of domestic oil-fields to make his country more independent of oil imports from countries like Iran or Venezuela and to lower the petrol prices. For this purpose he is ready to sacrifice even nature reserves. However the oil in the ANWR, the last untouched nature paradise in the USA, would only cover the US demand for 6 months according to independent studies. The reduction in the price of petrol would according to environmentalists be no more than one cent.

The Republican Party has since 1995 been trying with new bills in Congress to remove the protected status of the ANWR. Their last success was in the spring when they scored a victory in the House of Representatives, which then had a Republican majority. However laws require the agreement of both houses of Congress. An agreement for this projec