Environmentalists hope that two vital wildlife areas will now survive.Environmentalists hope that two vital wildlife areas will now survive. Home to 3,500 species of plants, 650 species of birds, and hundreds of species of mammals, nearly 10,000 acres of environmentally important wetland in South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. have been saved from further deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. by a British charity. In the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , House Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) have introduced legislation calling for a permanent ban on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) covers 19,049,236 acres (79,318 km²) in northeastern Alaska, in the North Slope region. It was originally protected in 1960 by order of Fred A. Seaton, the Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. and the declaration of the park's 1,235,500 coastal acres as a protected wilderness. Karen Ann Gajewski is a freelance editor and an editorial consultant to the Humanist. |
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