The Willow project is a plan to drill oil in Alaska that could produce up to 576 million barrels of oil, but it will also produce up to 239 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere according to the Bureau of Land Management . How could that much carbon emissions affect cities the size of our community?

     The CO2 amounts from the drilling would cause warmer winters, hotter summers, forest fires would become more common, and an increase in the greenhouse effect, science teacher Lucas Risinger said. 

     “Number one is just more CO2 and Methane into the atmosphere and [it] will just further climate change, which is already well in the works,” science teacher Gareth Engler said, “and plenty of what we’ve done is going to happen no matter what if we stopped today.” 

     Animal ecosystems would be affected by the Willow project’s environmental hazards. Science Teacher Mike Garnier says that the CO2 emissions could make floods and droughts worse and could ruin the environment for animals. Animals like polar bears, penguins, arctic foxes and any and all arctic animals would be affected by the changing climate. 

     Aside from the environmental effects, how will the Willow project affect our economy? According to Risinger,this project will expand the fossil fuel industry, put our economy further into the wrong direction, and create jobs, but only for a short period of time.

     “I’d much rather that we didn’t do it, because now we’re trashing yet another place,” Engler said. “Once you’re [Biden] going through with it, of course, there will probably be some leaks.”