FARMINGTON – Faculty members Alan McGillivray and Kathleen Welch roamed the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington on Friday masked as Arctic animals to announce a rally against oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge.
Environmental protection advocates, university students and professors, and interested locals gathered at UMF’s Thomas Auditorium for a rally aimed at encouraging those opposed to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to write or phone their Congressmen.
The approximately 15 attendees came to meet and learn from Shannon Wu and Rebecca Brown, who have spent the summer driving a van emblazoned with pictures of polar bears and caribou up the East Coast of the United States. The effort was to encourage Americans to protest a bill aimed at opening the refuge to oil companies.
Wu and Brown are employed by the Arctic Refuge Action Coalition, a nonprofit organization comprised of conservation, native, and religious groups, including the National Audubon Society, and the World Wildlife Fund. All have joined forces to lobby Congress against allowing drilling in the refuge. They have been on the road for nine weeks, and told attendees at Friday’s rally they had encountered “overwhelming support” along the way.
“Everybody has their own reason why [the issue] resonates with them,” Brown explained.
UMF Geology Professor Thomas Eastler, who attended the rally, explained that with a limited amount of fossil fuels in existence on the planet, many feel that finding effective alternative energy sources is imperative. Things like plastics and many pharmaceuticals are made from petrochemicals, which come from oil, he said.
Brown, Wu, and Alaska Coalition member Debi Davidson helped protesters write letters to congressmen. UMF junior Ashby Connors of Massachusetts said she came to the rally because she thinks it is “a bad idea to use what resources we have left on something temporary,” like fueling transportation. Junior Meagan Demers added, “It’s very, very selfish” to drill in the refuge “just because we need oil. And after we’re done drilling there, we’ll just corrupt the world,” she said.
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