March 2, 2001, Hour 2: An Early Extinction / Drilling in the ANWR

THIS WEEK ON
SCIENCE FRIDAY...

Science Friday > Archives > 2001 > March > March 2, 2001:

Hour Two: Early Extinction / Drilling in the ANWR

This week, Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) introduced in the "National Energy Security Act of 2001," a bill that includes, among other items, a proposal for energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The bill, S. 389, has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance for discussion -- but it's already a matter of a lot of discussion outside the Beltway as well.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the most northern and one of the largest refuges within America's National Wildlife Refuge System. It covers 19.8 million acres of territory in the northeastern corner of Alaska. (The state of South Carolina covers 19.9 million acres.)

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, focus of debate over oil
and gas exploration. National Wildlife Service image.

The bill just introduced would allow oil and gas exploration in about 1.5 million acres of area known as the coastal plain - a largely snow-covered area of boggy tundra on the shore of the Beaufort Sea. A Native American village, Kaktovik, lies on an island adjacent to the coastal plain. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll take a look at the exploration proposals. Will hunting for oil and gas here harm the environment? Can new technologies make such exploration safer and more environmentally friendly?

We'll also take a look at new research suggesting that a massive impact from an asteroid or comet some 250 million years ago (at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods) may have wiped out 90% of the planet's marine species and 70% of the land species. The researchers trace their suspicions to the finding of buckminsterfullerene molecules -- soccerball-like cages of carbon atoms sometimes called buckyballs -- containing unusual ratios of gas isotopes that point to an extraterrestrial origin.

This isn't the impact that may have killed off the dinosaurs. That event is thought to have involved a similarly sized object that crashed down near Chicxulub in central Mexico about 65 million years ago, an event known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. That event is thought to have brought about sudden, widespread climate change, leading to mass extinctions.

We'll get the scoop on the new theory, and talk about what may have happened back in the early days of life on Earth. Call in with your questions and comments on weather modification at 1-800-989-8255, and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required)

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:
Luann Becker
Visiting Assistant Professor, Geology
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington

Roger Herrera
Washington D.C. Coordinator
Arctic Power
Anchorage, Alaska

Melinda Pierce
Senior Washington Representative
Sierra Club
Washington, DC

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Impact Event at the Permian-Triassic Boundary: Evidence from Extraterrestrial Noble Gases in Fullerenes," Luann Becker, Robert J. Poreda, Andrew G. Hunt, Theodore E. Bunch, and Michael Rampino. Science, Feb 23 2001: 1530-1533.

"National Energy Security Act of 2001 (pdf, Sen. Murkowski)" or from THOMAS

(find more SciFri books here)

Search for books on:

Related Links:

National Energy Security Act of 2001
US Fish and Wildlife Service: Official Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Site US Fish and Wildlife Service: Arctic Refuge:Oil and Gas Issues US Fish & Wildlife Service: Arctic Refuge: Refuge Information anwr.org - (pro-exploration site) Univ. of Washington Press Release: Asteroid or comet triggered death of most species 250 million years ago National Geographic Magazine "When Life Nearly Came to the End: The Permian Extinction" National Museum of Natural History - Dinosaur Extinction
BBC Evolution Website: Extinction Files
The Permian Mass Extinction
Cretaceous climate change: asteroid extinction

This segment produced by: Karin Vergoth
Web Producer: Charles Bergquist

Have questions, comments, suggestions about the radio show? Contact us at scifri@npr.org.
Send questions, comments, suggestions about the site to producer@sciencefriday.com .

Science Friday^® and sciencefriday.com are produced by ScienceFriday Inc. "Science Friday" is a registered service mark.
Host/Executive Producer/Editor of Science Friday: Ira Flatow
Senior Producer of Science Friday: Karin Vergoth

Executive web producer: Ira Flatow
Web producer: Charles Bergquist