The Willow Project: Humanity is Doomed to Annihilation

The Willow Project: Humanity is Doomed to Annihilation 

By Eva-Maria Bontas

On Monday, the 13th of March, the Biden administration, part of the US Government, approved the Willow Project. The Willow Project is a massive operation that consists in selling Alaska to ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest crude oil producer, for $8 billion. Once Alaska is sold, the multinational will be allowed to start drilling for oil on the state’s public land for the next thirty years.

 If the project fabricates as much oil as predicted throughout the given time period, the consumption of that oil would release the equivalent of approximately 277 million metric tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Moreover, the Arctic circle is warming up four times faster than any other part of the world, so Willow is expected to speed up global warming, causing irreversible damage to the environment. 

It is foreseen that the defrosting of the Arctic would disrupt and affect ecosystems in the whole world, by causing natural disasters such as the sea level increasing which will cause inundations in south, south-east, and eastern Asian islands and archipelagos including Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Taiwan and more. Furthermore, the project will cause several animal species that inhabit the Artic Circle, counting the polar bears, arctic foxes, arctic hares, snowy owl, and several others to go extinct during the first 10 years of the operation.

On top of that, the United Nations recently communicated a final warning regarding climate change. The IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - stated that we, as a society, have less than seven years to make amends for the destruction that has already been done and redeem our shared behavior in order to prevent the Earth from heating up more than 1.5 degrees above pre industrial levels. In the unfortunate case in which the planet’s temperature does raise above 1.5 degrees, our lives are at stake, as this event will cause food and water shortages, deadly and extreme weather which will naturally result in a conflict between the five superpowers of the world: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Additionally, heatwaves would become both more frequent and more severe. The occurrence of an extreme heat event that would usually take place once a decade in an environment unaffected by humans would increase to 4.1 times after 1.5°C of warming, and to 5.6 times after 2°C. Essentially, the human race’s existence is jeopardized  – that is, by a phenomenon that can still be controlled.

Shortly after the Biden administration approved the project, numerous climate change activists started protesting against the operation and against the U.S. president. Yet approximately 80%+ of Alaska’s income is obtained from oil production, meaning that the project could provide the local communities with a greater amount of immediate revenue, which is particularly much needed for the citizens living in rural areas. As the state recently reached a forty year low in oil production, causing the bipartisan to urge support of the project from Alaskan lawmakers. However, according to their own analysis, it is predicted that the state will lose $1billion dollars throughout the first ten years of the Willow project and will only become cash positive in 2035.

There is no question that social media will continue to play an increasingly important role in environmental activism, but that could be dangerous because people en masse are likely unaware of what they're protesting against and aren’t sufficiently educated on the topic. The young activists are encouraged to cultivate their knowledge on what actually is global warming, what causes it and how to put an end to it.

Alaska, the willow project, and the future of Fossil Fuels (2023) NPR. NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165353140/alaska-the-willow-project-and-the-future-of-fossil-fuels (Accessed: March 27, 2023). 

The willow project and the race to pump the “Last barrel” of oil (no date). Available at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/03/16/willow-project-and-race-to-pump-last-barrel-of-oil-pub-89298 (Accessed: March 27, 2023). 

21, J.J.M. et al. (2023) 'an act of climate denial': Biden faces anti-willow protests after IPCC report, Common Dreams. Available at: https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-willow-protests-ipcc (Accessed: March 27, 2023). 

(no date) ABC News. ABC News Network. Available at: https://abcnews.go.com/US/willow-project-confirmed-despite-protests-experts-explain-young/story?id=97742724 (Accessed: March 28, 2023). 

Yereth Rosen, A.B. (2022) In new bipartisan Alaska Senate majority of 17, members vow compromise and consensus, Alaska Public Media. Available at: https://alaskapublic.org/2022/11/29/in-new-bipartisan-alaska-senate-majority-of-17-members-vow-compromise-and-consensus/ (Accessed: March 28, 2023). 

Abraham, R. (2023) The weekly wrap: IPCC report fuels protests of Willow Project, Next City. Available at: https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/the-weekly-wrap-ipcc-report-fuels-protests-of-willow-project (Accessed: March 28, 2023).