Why war?
Why not big projects?

An address to the Forty-seventh annual
United Nations Department of Public Information /
Non-Governmental Organization Conference
United Nations Headquarters
New York. New York
September 22, 1994

Walter J. Hickel
Governor of Alaska
and
Chairman of The Northern Forum

Click here for reference to Global Energy Grid

Why war?
Today, I call on the United Nations to turn its attention to the Far North to use our energy and our resources to harness big projects in the fight against poverty.

I represent the voice of the Arctic a voice rarely heard in the halls of the United Nations.

Cold and remote, the Arctic is as mysterious as the moon. It is beautiful. It is romantic. To some, it is frightening. Its reality is lost beneath layers of myth like centuries of snow covering the pure blue ice of a glacier a thousand feet below.

Today, we will penetrate those layers, shatter those myths, and examine the vision the Arctic peoples have for the future their future, and yours.

I represent the leaders of 21 Arctic and northern regions, the members of The Northern Forum, a unique non-governmental organization (NGO) made up of 21 governors. We come from many lands, including Lapland and the Yukon, northern China, Japan and Norway, from the Komi Republic in western Russia and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Alaska's next door neighbor.

Unlike in the Antarctic, people live in the Far North. People of rich culture and history.

Many in the temperate and tropical zones look up. They are intrigued. They want to visit us, but they soon return home to warmth and comfort. But we who live in the Arctic don't look up.

We don't look down. We look around. To us the Arctic is home. The Arctic is heritage. The Arctic is our here-and-now and our hereafter. We love it summer and winter.

On May 11 of this year, 88 Arctic adventurers lifted off in a Boeing 727-100 jet from Anchorage, Alaska, headed for Kotzebue on the Bering Sea, and then on around the world. They visited all 8 Arctic nations touching down in 14 Arctic cities. They returned to Alaska seven days later exhilarated and inspired.

This first-ever Circumpolar Expedition was a symbol, a symbol designed by The Northern Forum, a symbol that the Arctic, long-divided by artificial boundaries and ideologies, is beginning to unite.

We have much in common, notably our climate, our natural resource wealth, and our constant conflict with our mother countries. Washington, D.C. doesn't understand the Arctic, nor does Moscow, Oslo, or Ottawa.

But, The Northern Forum is bringing a change. I submit that our region-to-region approach, among areas with like problems, is the wave of the future.

Ten of our 21 governor members are from Russian regions. Together we are working on trade, and sustainable development. We are fighting against nuclear waste dumping in the Arctic, and we are concerned about meaningful involvement by indigenous people in northern leadership.

Our greatest challenge is to cope with decisions made in the South that don't work in the North, For instance, in the great Prudhoe Bay oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska, we re-wrote and re-designed the construction techniques and government regulations used in warm climates. We had to! In Arctic construction, heat is the enemy, cold is the friend. Heavy rigs move across the frozen, ice- covered tundra without leaving a trace. They operate from a frozen drilling pad that later melts and disappears.

The basic lesson is that the Arctic is not as difficult as it is different. For instance, we have no population problem. The Arctic does not compete with the world for people. But the Arctic is rich with the resources people need.

We who live at the top of the world, live above an ocean of oil and gas, a continent of coal, mountain ranges of minerals, and a world of natural beauty. If, as this conference suggests, "development is another name for peace," then the Arctic will be one of the world's great peacemakers.

There are vast, untouched lands above the Arctic Circle. And government, not the private sector, controls nearly all of this remote real estate. This is certainly true in Alaska. Private individuals own less than one percent of our land. That's one reason the Arctic, in the past, has been exploited. When no one owns it, no one cares.

The obligation rests with government both to care for the land and to make it productive. Therefore government must not be the enemy. Government must be the friend. Government must regulate, to ensure that our lands and people are not exploited. But government must also advocate. Without government saying "yes.' there will be no sustainable economic foundation.

I call Alaska an "Owner State." What we own in common must be managed in a new way not in the interest of a few, but for the needs of all. But this is not only true in Alaska.

As we look at the globe, seven-eighths of which is covered with water, we can see that it is truly a collective world. No one will ever homestead the oceans. No one country owns the air or the water that runs from the world's rivers into a common sea. The United Nations calls it the "global commons." And it extends beyond this earth. No one nation can lay claim to the moon, the planets, arid the stars. So we must learn to work together.

Some of the former communist nations and the peoples of the Third World are magnetized now by a market economy. They see its power to perform economic miracles. "Enlightened self-interest" is the slogan.

As an Alaskan businessman, I am a product of that system. But just as Communism failed we of the industrialized world must admit that unbridled Capitalism is not the total answer either. Those in business must realize that the bottom line is important, but it is not the only line. Without concern for other people, for their needs and wants, activities for strictly private gain become destructive not only to others but eventually to oneself.

As the Inuit, Sami, Lapp, and other indigenous peoples of the North learned long ago, in a cold, harsh environment, you have to care about others. You share to survive. You waste nothing. You care for the total. Every hunter's prize is a gift, not just to that hunter, but to his family and village. He shares his whale, walrus or caribou with others especially the very old and the very young.

So Capitalism, too, must be enlightened. It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the future demands "unselfish Capitalism." All of us North, South, East, and west must be ready for change.

We, the Arctic people, do not fear change. Because nature does not fear change. In the Far North, we observe that nothing changes the environment as much as nature. Signs of the vitality of the planet signs of its youth are seen in our volcanoes our earthquakes and our rivers, most of which don't run blue. They run rich with the colors of a changing earth.

Not unlike the other regions at this podium this morning there is conflict in the Arctic. But our conflict is not violent not yet. There is conflict between those from Outside who fear for the Arctic and those Inside who have faith in it.

The Arctic is a battlefield in a world war of priorities over the preservation or use of our resources. This war is waged on every land, and it is a bitter fight. As the population in the temperate and tropical regions grows, the need for resources will grow. Most people don't want development in their own backyard; so those resources will come mostly from the Arctic, the oceans, and space.

And yet, every year there seems to be a new "Arctic preservation strategy." And in most cases, these plans threaten both the Arctic's potential and its people. These policies are not born of malice, but of ignorance. And ignorance is a killer in the Arctic. One misstep, one wrong turn, and we are faced with the brutal truth that Mother Nature in the North has no compassion.

The Eskimo peoples learned this lesson well, as hive the more recent pioneers. But today, do-gooders from afar want to put our lifestyles and livelihoods at risk.

A recent initiative from 'Washington. D.C. and Ottawa would place 20 million acres of the most resource rich part of Alaska and the Yukon in World Heritage status. How much is 20 million acres? It's Four times the size of Israel. It's larger than Ireland. It's bigger than the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland combined.

This idea, to place the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (which we call ANWR) in park status, would lock up the most promising onshore oil province in North America. That's unacceptable, and it's so unnecessary. By law, the heart of ANWR a nine million-acre preserve that includes the Brooks Range is a wilderness where no development will ever take place.

For 17 years, Alaskans have produced close to two million barrels of oil a day from our North Slope, shipping it down the trans-Alaska pipeline. This energy flow makes up 25 percent of the domestic oil production of the United States of America. And without the oil that can be produced safely from a small comer of the Arctic Refuge, that pipeline may soon run dry.

The Eskimo people who live on the coastal plain have watched our oil development there for 20 years. At first suspicious, they are now strong advocates. It has resulted in modern medical facilities, schools, housing, and jobs that allow them to combine modern benefits with a subsistence hunting and fishing lifestyle. And the wildlife has not been harmed. In fact, caribou herds have increased as much as sixfold, thanks to enlightened management practices.

Those who live in the North are dumbfounded that neither Washington, D.C., nor Ottawa bothered to consult the people of Alaska or their governor before advancing this lock-up concept.

At the same time, our national leaders encouraged the start-up of the $16 billion Sakhalin II mega-project in the Russian Far East. While the ANWR oil field would be safely located on land, using proven technology, the Sakhalin project will place oil rigs in the middle of a fabulous fishery that produces 1.1 million tons of fish each year.

There is a double standard here a standard that suggests it is okay to risk fouling the seas of nations in desperate economic straits, so long as you don't drill in the lands of those of Western European descent. That's not right.

Today I call on like-minded peoples here at the United Nations to raise their voices with us this type of high-handed land grab is a new form of colonialism, born of an anti-people philosophy. We mustn't let this ideology poison world policy.

People are the most precious things on earth. If we abandon that basic truth, we will tolerate untold human suffering.

On the eve of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, I shared the podium with my host, Secretary General Maurice Strong, at the Global Forum. And I warned against those who see the world in only one dimension. I called on the world community to adopt a universal environmental equation, an equation that addresses the total environment. That equation, simply stated, is this: The total environment includes people, people's needs, and nature.

What does it cost to protect the total environment? The cost is to care. Because when we decide to care, we will pay the true cost.

Let me give you an example from our part of the world. Today a pound of fresh pollock from the North Pacific may wholesale for one dollar. But there's great waste in how that fish is harvested. Every year hundreds of millions of pounds of other types of fish caught in that same net the so-called by-catch are dumped overboard wasted.

With the hunger in the world today, this is a criminal act! This waste must be brought to an end! When it is, that fish may cost a little more perhaps a dollar five a pound. It's time we paid that extra five cents.

What I am saying is that we must all look to a new definition of success that includes caring for the earth and all of its living things and natural wonders. The throw-away society didn't work. The give-away society doesn't work. And, let's face it, the lock-away society won't work either.

Yes, the extreme preservationists the anti-growth movement must redirect its energies. Like the church 500 years ago when it repressed change of any kind, those who oppose growth oppose our salvation. There is no hope if there is no growth. And there is no wealth without production without people doing productive work. Someone has to dig a hole, cut a tree, catch a fish just for the basics of life.

No matter what you call your system when the economy fails, the government fails. And if the world economy fails, the United Nations will fail.

Today I bring to you a proposal for the next century. I commend it to all nations and NGOs for their best thinking and creativity.

Philosophers have talked for centuries about building a new world. Today we are meeting to discuss building peace. My conclusion is that to build a new world to build peace we must literally build it.

Historically, the world's most cynical leaders have used war or preparing for war as an economic strategy. War puts people to work and gives them a purpose. War concentrates the thoughts of a nation, making it think and act as one.

But why war? Why not big projects? After all, war is just a big project.

My idea is not new. It's as old as the pyramids and the aqueducts of Rome.

The late inventor Buckminster Fuller conceived of a global energy network, linking the industrial and developing worlds with an energy grid. Existing electrical generators unused during the night in the North, can be tapped at the speed of light to bring poverty-fighting power to the South.

Two billion people live without electricity today.

Show me any area in the world where there is a lack of energy, and I'll show you basic poverty. There is a direct tie-in between energy and poverty, energy and war, energy and peace.

While Fuller's global concept may seem like science fiction, electrical interconnections between regions and even continents can and must be tackled now. This can be a vast and visionary undertaking worthy of our generation.

Some people may ask, "Where will the money come from?" I say money is not the problem. There's always enough money to go to war. It all depends on our priorities.

In some quarters, big projects today are not "politically correct." Many sincere people believe "small is beautiful" and "wilderness is the world." But we in the Far North understand the power of a big project to change society. Russia did it with the 6,500 mile trans-Siberia Railway. Alaska did it when we built the largest project in the history of free enterprise, the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. It mobilized our people, gave them a challenge, and a goal.

I have talked with my fellow governors in The Northern Forum about longline energy grids. And we have discussed sharing our vast fresh water resources in the North with the arid nations of the South. We are planing to use our vast natural gas resources to help clean up the smog-choked cities of the industrial world. And we have dreamed about a rail tunnel beneath the Bering Sea.

Imagine, a rail trip from New York through Alaska, connecting with the trans-Siberia railway, and on to Paris, circling more than halfway around the world, and carrying with it a wealth of ideas, of commerce, and of wonder.

The regions of The Northern Forum are already working to make Russia's Northern Sea Route a common carrier for the world's goods. For example, resources from the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America transported on ice-armored freighters over the top of the world can arrive in Rotterdam 8 days faster than if they sail through the Panama Canal. Japanese cargo can get there a remarkable 18 days faster.

The solution to our social problems is not Money. It is productive work.

And the best jobs are those with a sense of mission. The builders of the great monuments of the world demonstrated that truth centuries ago the craftsmen who constructed the cathedrals of Europe; the Africans who designed and built the pyramids; the Mayans who created ancient temples in America; the Khmer who built Angkor Wat. For some, putting these stones in place was a religious experience of its own.

Today, where do the tourists of the world want to go? They visit those shrines. They want to see the Statue of Liberty and Washington, D.C., with its marvelous monuments and architecture, The Eiffel Tower. The Taj Mahal. St. Petersburg. The Sistine Chapel. The Parthenon.

And it's not just monuments that attract. Great Engineering achievements do too the Great Wall of China, the Suez Canal, Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Sydney Opera House.

And even in Alaska many of our visitors want to see and touch the 789-mile trans-Alaska pipeline.

Mankind's handiwork fascinates and inspires every generation.

So as we approach the end of this century, let's agree on some big projects and build them. Let's link up the world's excess electrical generating capacity with those most in need. Let's take water from North to South. Let's construct the Bering tunnel and join the world's continents. Let's harvest the wealth of northern resources especially our storehouse of energy.

If we tackle these projects we will learn that the days of pioneering are not over. Alaska has been called the last frontier but in reality there will be frontiers as long as there are humans. Every child born is given new frontiers to explore. God's way to test us is to give us Our own frontiers and the greatest frontier is within 0urselves.

Today I call on the United Nations to turn its attention to the Far North. The next decade, the next millennium, might be dedicated to the Arctic the Decade of the Arctic.

In my part of the world, the peoples of the Arctic can communicate now without being blocked by curtains of iron or ice. Our "new frontier" is to work together to improve the living standards of our peoples; to fight both to preserve our values of old and welcome the new; to build a way of life that is truly sustainable Then the Arctic, no longer ignored, can participate in a world-wide effort to build peace for all people.