On March 13, 2023, the Biden administration approved the controversial project in Alaska known as, The Willow Project. 

According to CNN, the Willow Project is “a massive and decadeslong oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government. The area where the project is planned holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. That oil would take years to reach the market since the project has yet to be constructed.” 

After President Biden approved this project many reacted with outrage. “Wrong on every level,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote on Twitter. Many people are still trying to put a stop to this plan. One thing many are worried about is how our arctic animals will be affected by this.

This project is set to release 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment according to greenly.earth. PBS states that the arctic is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world and this is because of sea ice. “This is a thin layer (typically one meter to five meters thick) of seawater that freezes in winter and partially melts in the summer. The sea ice is covered in a bright layer of snow which reflects around 85 percent of incoming solar radiation back out to space. The opposite occurs in the open ocean. As the darkest natural surface on the planet, the ocean absorbs 90 percent of solar radiation.”

There is still a chance this project can be revoked. Some ways that we can try and help revoke this project involve writing to the white house, getting in touch with your local representative, and using social media.