![]() Glaciers calve into the still waters and extend for miles inland. Craggy mountains, many of which have never felt hiking boots on their flanks, rise to 6,500 feet. Southeast Alaska-a thin curve of rain soaked islands, massive ice fields and mountain-lined fjords bristling with western hemlock and Sitka spruce-is a road-builders' nightmare. Beyond Kensington, who can calculate exactly what wealth is imprisoned in the rocks beneath the east side of the Lynn Canal, tantalizingly out of reach unless a road is completed? ![]() Cynical optimists forecast the project will mysteriously run out of money once it reaches Kensington. In other words, Stevens and his cronies want to federally subsidize mining roads. There are also significant deposits on the east side of the Lynn Canal, exactly at the terminus of the proposed road. Take a spin through the Juneau International Airport and rest your eyes on a glass-encased display called "Mineral Resources of Southeast Alaska." The largest band of known mineral deposits is north of Juneau at the Kensington mine, just out of reach of the current road system. Stevens' plan involves laying 70 miles of new road and also building a new ferry terminal-maybe two-plus a new ferry to shuttle people three miles across the canal to the fishing village of Haines (where residents are vehemently opposed to this whole road business anyway).Ī dangerous, expensive plan, plus an ugly road, and add to that angry residents: what gives? Sure, Stevens has road-building, ferry-constructing friends who stand to rake in fistfuls of cash, but the plot is thicker and more diabolical than naked profit. ![]() ![]() Where citizens of Juneau will once again have to arrange their lives around a boat schedule-the very predicament this road was supposed to ameliorate in the first place. Here's the punch line: after crossing all those avalanche chutes, traversing sheer cliffs and destroying the mouth of a pristine, wild and scenic river, the road will arrive at. Now that all the details are in, the plan reads like a twisted joke. Any third grader can tell you the effects of punching a road through untrammeled wilderness, carving a shelf for cars along dramatic rock faces under which Stellar sea lions, humpback whales and five different species of salmon frolic. The proposed thoroughfare would follow the east side of the Lynn Canal-the nation's longest, deepest fjord-across approximately 40 avalanche chutes. Is America great or what?Īt first, the Juneau road plan just seemed stupendously dangerous and environmentally devastating. All this in a time when the US's resources are stretched to the limit by our fanatical quest to import free-market capitalism to the few remaining countries that have not yet embraced our economic colonialism. We're talking about fucking with an award-winning public transportation system and replacing it with a dangerous, environmentally destructive conduit for private automobiles. US Senator Stevens has managed to secure $365 million of federal money, earmarked to bring a road to the deprived citizens of Juneau, who currently rely on one of the most stunning and dependable ferry systems on the planet for their transportation needs. ![]() All hail Ted Stevens, king of pork, the man who brings the bacon home to the state of Alaska. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |