Places in Danger: Utukok Uplands
To the south, the foothills of the Brooks Range rise in a region known as the Utukok Uplands. This special area provides critical habitat and calving grounds for the largest caribou herd in Alaska - the Western Arctic Caribou herd. The uplands also host the largest concentration of grizzly bears in the Arctic and the biggest population of wolverines in the world.
Though the wildlife-rich uplands lack significant oil resources, the area is still not safe. Coal lies underneath these subtle rolling foothills of the Brooks Range. The coal industry-which creates 40 percent of our global warming pollution-is now threatening to open up one of our last frontiers to devastating and polluting mining practices. Most of the coal that the industry hopes to wrestle from the Arctic will not even be used to meet American energy needs. Instead, it will be shipped to Asia.
It simply doesn't make sense to destroy our most pristine wildlands and wildlife to mine for an outdated energy source like coal. And if we want to protect the Arctic from the worst effects of global warming, we need to stop the coal rush now.
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