Caribou, part of the Central Arctic herd, grazes near a Prudhoe Bay oil field facility

Natural gas is regularly flared from production facilities in order to manage processing requirements. High-temperature combustion of fossil fuels produces nitrogen oxides, otherwise known as air pollution. Nitrogen oxides attack the membranes of the respiratory organs and increases the likelihood of respiratory illness. Vegetation is very sensitive to nitrogen oxide exposure. After being released into the atmosphere, it falls back to the surface as acid rain or snow. Prudhoe Bay is permitted to release 56,000 tons of this pollutant annually. This is more than double the amount of nitrogen oxides emitted from automobiles and generating plants in major American cities.

The Central Arctic caribou herd numbers about 27,000 and ranges across its original home territory, now occupied by the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. The Bush administration and its oil company donors like to point out that the Central Arctic herd has increased in number since development began in the mid-70s. The implication being that development has been good for the herd. Despite the early increase, the Central Arctic herd has been in decline since 1992. Biologists have plotted decreased caribou densities within a zone 4 km of pipelines and roads, showing that the extent of avoidance greatly exceeds the physical footprint of an oil-field complex. (Nellemann and Cameron 1998).

The transnational oil companies that operate Prudhoe Bay complain of scarce opportunities to explore. Such statements are countered by the fact that more than 90 percent of Alaska's arctic coast, foothill tundra and offshore tracts are presently open and available for lease and development. A major new area west of Prudhoe Bay, the National Petroleum Reserve, was recently opened to development. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the only area on Alaska's North Slope where oil exploration and development is prohibited by law. If greed overwhelms common sense, the oil industry will control the entire coastline.