Activists taking it to the streets

Alaskan wildlife and oil don't mix.

That's the message of two environmentalists who hope pedal power will propel their cause and keep Congress from opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration.

Emily Ferry and Ken Jacobs of the Alaska Coalition -- a network of more than 500 environmental groups -- bicycled about 65 miles through Southeast Missouri on Friday. Traveling down U.S. 61 and Highway 177, they arrived in Cape Girardeau about 5 p.m. and presented a slide show to the local Sierra Club a few hours later.

Ferry said they left Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 19 and plan to pedal their way to Washington, D.C., by Nov. 16.

Ferry and Jacobs, both of Philadelphia, said they're making an oil-free journey to show support for protecting Alaska's fragile environment.

The refuge is the calving ground for 120,000 caribou. Allowing oil drilling in that area could threaten the survival of the caribou herd, they said. "It's kind of like drilling in a maternity ward," said Ferry.

But many in Congress, including U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, want to open up the area for oil exploration and insist it can be done in an environmentally safe manner.

She said it would reduce dependence on foreign oil and the House voted last year to allow drilling. President Bush backed the measure, but it later stalled in the Senate.

Emerson said the proposal would open up only a small area of the wildlife refuge for oil drilling -- an area smaller than some Chaffee, Mo., farms.

Emerson spokeswoman Michelle Dimarob said the affected area would be no larger than the St. Louis airport.

But Jacobs said such statements are misleading because they don't take into account the vast network of roads and pipes that would connect to the drilling sites.

Ferry and Jacobs said less oil would be consumed if more Americans would ride bicycles, walk or even tune up their vehicles. That could lessen the demand for oil drilling in Alaska, they said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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