Weeping. Breathing. Thumping.

I am zooming in from Homer in the land of the Ninilchik. I speak of weeping, breathing, thumping. These all humans can do. In June 2008, I was meeting with Sarah James, an elder in the Gwich’in community in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and Senator Murkowski’s (one of two National Senators from Alaska) staff when the Supreme Court Exxon Valdez case was decided. At stake $2.5 Billion then paired down to $500 million damages - an economic argument. That oil spill forever damaged those waters/shores. Native Alaskan culture can not be reduced to a spreadsheet of Xtractions/profit shares. I witnessed nurses weep at the office that day about the breathing troubles her people were Xperiencing from air pollution from oil drilling. She described the terror in watching kids with life-threatening asthma. To Xplore for oil a survey of the land is done with thumper trucks. Those 93,000-pound vibrating trucks pound the snow to read what is below. What if a denning polar bear with two cubs is below? Thumping. Crushing.

Indigenous shoreline communities are in Code Red. KOHTR’ELNEYH MEANS REMEMBERING FORWARD IN THE ALASKAN TANANA LANGUAGE. Choose our finer future. We have options for energy: renewables. We can choose clean waters, clean air, clean lands.

I've served WILD Foundation for 16 years. We hosted WILD8 8th World Wilderness Congress- 2005 in Anchorage. We launched the Internationa League of Conservation Photographers then/there. Then/there we heard from indigenous people from around the world. Alaskan natives made known the many places Alaska were under pressure from Xtracting. Dominating our lands, waters, air with toxic industrial activities is not my desire. Not Gwichin's desire. Not youth-around-the-world’s desire. We can not mortgage our children’s future by taking as much as we can as fast as we can as far & wide as we can. Just because we can, does not mean we should. What weeping/breathing/thumping will it take to protect Alaska's wildernesses? No drilling in ANWR. No mining in Donlin. No Mining in Pebble. No timbering in the Tongass. Protect these precious wild treasures. They may hold secrets to survive a future damaged by fossil fuel Xtractors.