Alaska Case Study
- Created by: ionag
- Created on: 10-04-18 16:39
Development Opportunities
1) OIL AND GAS - Over half of Alska's income comes from this industry, most oil fields are found in the Tundra area of the north. Oil reserves in Prudhoe Bay are currently expolited, but there are more reserves in more remote locations in the north of the state. The Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline links the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay wih Valdez, from where the oil can be shipped to customers.
2) MINERAL RESOURCES - Gold, silver, iron ore, lead, zinc and copper are mined, particularly in the Trintina gold belt. Mining in the Tintina belt contributed $2.2bn to Alaska's GDP in 2013.
3) FISHING - Salmon, crab and pollack are fished. Fishing emplys 79,000 people and contributes over $5bn to Alaska's economy. the largest fishing ports are in the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island, both to the south-west of the state.
4) TOURISM - Tourists are attracted by Alaska's wilderness scenery. Around 2 million toursits visit Alaska each year bringing in money and creating opportunities for employment.
Challenges to Development - Part 1
- State population is one of the smallest in the US, despite being the largest state by area. Most live in the South/Southeast of the State, near the coast, (warmer and less remote.)
- Development in Alaska is challenging - getting access to resources and finding a workforce to exploit them and providing buildings, infrastructure and protection from the extreme weather.
Eviromental Conditions:
1) Very cold - In Prudhoe Bay the mean anual temp is around -9 degrees. Exposure to extreme cold can cause injury or death and medical care may be a long distance away.
2) In winter, it is dark nearly all the time in the north, making it hard to live and work there.
Inaccssibility:
1) Some areas are extremally remote and mountainous - access difficult and expensive.
2) In winter, getting to some towns can only be accessed by air or ice roads. In summer the ground is too soft so there are sometimes no roads to towns.
3) Developments far away from towns - Proposed field of Smith Bay is 200km from nearest exisiting facilities - difficult and expensive to transport oil out.
4) Population of Alaska is small and scattered - People in small towns may be a long way from employment opportunities or services.
Challenges to Development - Part 2
Enviromental conditons and inaccessibility create challenges for providing buildings and infrastructure:
- Most construction work can only take place in summer when the days are longer and temperatures are warmer.
- Development takes a long time and is very expensive. For example, to exploit oil wells in northwen Alaska, building materials have to be shipped to the area in the summer, when seas aren't frozen. But prospecting for oil can only occur in winter, when the ground is frozen and able to support temporary drilling rigs.
- Permafrost provides a solid base to build on, but if it melts (e.g due to warmth from buildings or pipelines) the ground becomes unstable. This can cause buidings to collapse or pipelines to fracture.
There can also be conflict between development and conservation priorities - the economic benefits of development may come at a high enviromental cost, and conservation may hinder the local economy.
Human Responses - Resilience
Resilience: Being able to cope with the challeneges the enviromnment presents
1) Electricity companies have emergency generators that can be started if the power fails, and emergency banks of batteries that can ensure electricity supplies are not inturrupted while the generators are starting up. However, remote communities are still very vulnerable if there's a fault with their main generator as emergency generators can easil be overloaded and may break down, leaving the community with no power at all.
2) The Alaskan govt has emergency food supplies to feed 40,000 people for seven days in the event of a natural disaster cutting some poeple off from regular supplies.
3) When the only road to Prudhoe Bay, the Dalton Highway, is damaged by the weather, specially designed trucks called rollagons with wide, tube-like tyre can cross the tundra to deliver fuel supplies. But it is difficult to bring in enough for normal usuage this way - this may mean supplis are limited and prices rise.
Human Responses - Mitigation
Mitigation: Reducing the severity of challenges
1) Utilities such as water and sewage in town are bult in 'utlidors' - above ground insulated corridors - to avoid digging into perafrost and prevent melting. However, they are expensive to build and maintain and may still freeze, causing damage and cutting off supplies.
2) Buildings are constructed on thick layers of gravel or on stilts to prevent them from thawing the permafrost below. Similarly, some sections of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline are raised on stilts (3m above ground) to prevent damage to the Permafrost. However, this adds to the cost of construction.
Human Responses - Adaptation
Adaptation: Adjusting behaviour to cope with the environment
1) People working in the cold, particulary in the oil, gas and mining industries, burn lots of calories. Some employers make food available 24/7 to ensure employees have enough energy.
2) Working practices are adapted to the weather- employees may be made to take warming-up breaks to prevent frostbite as often as every 20 minutes in extreme weather. However, this isn't very productive way of working, so it may not be economically viable for some companies.
3) Many vehicles run their engines continously all through winter, otherwise they would struggle to start in the cold. This obviously costs a lot and is pollutive.
Oil Development - Part 1
There are 4300 + wells in Prudhoe Bay, with complex infrastructure is involved (pumping stations/roads/bridges.) Trans-Alaska Pipeline tranpsorts the oil and is 800 miles long.
Impacts:
- Disrupts grazing region for Caribou avoiding predators.
- Boomtowns are created - overstretches services, crime increase.
- Only 2bn barrels left, originally 25bn.
- Securing of energy supplies - reduces reliance on the hostile Middle East.
- Cuts imports and strains on economy.
- Increases job opportunities.
- Alaska is almost tax free.
Concerns:
- Possible damage to fragile tundra vegetation and wildlife.
- Loss of wilderness area.
- Local people have to move away
- Fear of oil spill
Oil Development - Part 2
Adverse Effects:
- Migration of Caribou herds disrupted by pipeline.
- Oil spillage degraded habitats - Feb 2006 oil sill went unnoticed for 5 days, lucily the spillage occured in Winter so the active layer was frozen so the oil could be vacuumed off.
- Seismic explosions disrubts offshore and onshore wildlife.
- Gravel exraction from riverbeds damaged fish enviroment
- Solid waste disposal difficult - hard to construct landfill, slow rate of organic breakdown.
Oil Industry vs Environment:
- Mountain ranges of up to 1460m high to be crossed.
- Surface thawing and moving in the summer
- Sea frozen for most of the year.
- Pipeline crosses earthquake belt
Oil Development - Part 3
Attempted Solutions:
- Pipeline built on stilts; 3m above ground - protects permafrost and Caribou can go under it.
- Sliding shoes allows sideways movement - combats summer thawing and moving.
- Support pylons sunk through active layer for stabalisation.
- Refrigeration unit to keep ground frozen, reducing movement in summer.
- Pipeline insulates at 80 degrees celsuis to avoid freezing.
- Suspension bridge - carries pipe across rivers.
Enviromentally Friendly Technology:
- Insulatd Ice Pads - Roads and infrastructure features built on pads to protect permafrost.
- Seismic Exploration - Exploratory explosions replace test drills.
- Advanced Computering - Better at estimating geoogial structures, meaning less wells.
- Lateral Drilling - Drilling sideways up to km away, modern wells - lighter and more efficient.
Interest Groups, For or Against Oil Developments?
Conservationalists:
- Tundra ecosystems are more valuable than oil.
- It is our moral obligation to save wild places.
- Greater investment should be put into finding alternatives.
Travel Alaska:
- They want people to got to Alaska to experience the culture abd natural beauty of Alaska.
- Pipeline will scar the landscape.
Citizens:
- The oil will run out eventually, opportunities for future generations.
- Employemnt benefits.
BP
- 40% of shares are held in the US and provides jobs.
Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR)
In 2008 a proposal was put presented to the US Congress to explore the 1002 lands (named after a clause in the Alaska land Conservation Act) for oil and gas development, this areas is central for claving for Caribou in the summer months. Additonally, Old Crow Flats borders the ANWR and is one of 19 villages of the communties of the Vuntut Gwitchin people, is home to 7,500.
Old Crow Flats - Periglacial environment
- Mean daily temps of -35 degrees cesuis in January and 15 degrees celsuis in July.
- Mean annual rainall of 200mm.
Vuntut Gwitchin Community:
- Orignally nomadic (travels by season) following the Caribou herds as they migrate cross the Yukon as well as collecting berries and fruit.
- Uses Caribou for food and uses their fur for their clothing and tents.
- Bones of the Caribou are used to make soups, as well as tools and spears.
- They ensure they only take what they need and do not overkill.
The Future
- Devlopment of infrastructure of the oil indusry has taken time and is costly, therefore is unlikely to be abandoned.
- Low oil prices since 2014 has slowed drilling, but there are still issues such as he energy insecurity caused by tensions in the Middle East that make Alaskan oil viable in the coming years.
- Most recent Global Climate Change Conference (Paris 2015) agreed to set limits on carbon emissions which may see the reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
- Shell has experienced issues with dilling in Alaska. including halting drilling after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an accident with the drilling rig in 2012 and issues with dry hole digging which caused a $7bn planned drill to be abandoned in 2015.
- Obama proposed that 5bn hectares of the ANWR should become clasified as Wilderness in 2015, meaningthat oil exploration would cease at the lands would be protected; a first in US politics.
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