[HN Gopher] Jimmy Carter Is Still Trying to Protect Alaskan Wild...
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       Jimmy Carter Is Still Trying to Protect Alaskan Wilderness
        
       Author : 1vuio0pswjnm7
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2022-06-12 20:48 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.alaskapublic.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.alaskapublic.org)
        
       | kinnth wrote:
       | Yes the resident logic is a bait and switch for further
       | developments. Wilderness should stay wild. Leave it as is and do
       | nothing. It's amazing how many powerful politicians and obviously
       | lobbied individuals keep trying to change that.
        
       | CA0DA wrote:
       | For those simply upvoting without reading the article, this case
       | is more nuanced than the headline may sound:
       | 
       | > Residents in the community of King Cove want to exchange land
       | to build a gravel road through the refuge to provide access to an
       | all-weather airport in nearby Cold Bay for medical transports.
        
         | notch656a wrote:
         | A well connected, wealthy person with no real worries about
         | their own access to medical professionals and no real roots in
         | Alaska feigning to act for the good of nature but in the
         | process acting against the interest of these communities? Say
         | it aint so.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | swayvil wrote:
         | We upvote what we like, downvote what we don't like. Such dog
         | damn simple creatures we are.
        
         | mod wrote:
         | I personally don't consider that nuanced.
         | 
         | I live five miles from pavement, an hour from a hospital, so I
         | understand these concerns.
         | 
         | I would be absolutely disgusted if they paved through my local
         | national forest for some quicker access to... Anything.
         | Literally anything.
         | 
         | Those people all have the choice to leave. Living in remote
         | places comes with many, many tradeoffs and inconveniences.
         | There's no safety in the wilderness.
         | 
         | Keep the wild places wild. There's so little left.
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | It's not about the residents of King Cove. BTW they've either
         | been without that road for 40 years, or moved there knowing the
         | situation.
         | 
         | It's about power and control if you go by this part:
         | 
         | "The split panel decision would allow the secretary, without
         | any public process or without compliance with any other laws,
         | to engage in a backroom land exchange,"
        
           | hanniabu wrote:
           | That's a pretty fucked up clause
        
           | notch656a wrote:
           | 45% of households in King Cove have children who had no
           | choice in whether the road is there or not 40 years ago. It's
           | hard to just blame them that "they knew the roads weren't
           | there" when they were born thus they're not allowed roads to
           | medical care the way I (and probably you) are.
        
             | mod wrote:
             | I would sooner take the children away or force the
             | residents to move than pave a road through the Alaskan
             | wilderness.
             | 
             | I wouldn't do those things either, though. People get to
             | choose where and how to raise their children. Children
             | don't get a say so in virtually anything that affects them.
             | 
             | "Think of the children" is not a good argument.
             | 
             | Also the whole population is like 1200 people. We're
             | talking about a relative handful of kids. Like one very
             | small elementary school (edit: Google search says there's
             | 87 kids in PK-12th grade. Combined.)
        
           | ivanhoe wrote:
           | > they've either been without that road for 40 years, or
           | moved there knowing the situation.
           | 
           | It's a really weird argument, you're basically saying that
           | people shouldn't be allowed to upgrade their infrastructure
           | ever? Imagine saying that for some poor country: "Oh, well,
           | they either had no running water before, or they knew the
           | situation before moving there, so screw them, they can just
           | continue walking 5 miles every day to bring water from the
           | spring".
           | 
           | Also they've been without that road a lot longer than 40
           | years, King Cove exists since at least 1930s. Population is
           | dropping so I doubt many people have been moving there, most
           | of people live there their whole life....and if they get sick
           | or injured and planes can't land, they're screwed without
           | that road.
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-12 23:00 UTC)