June 6, 2011

Daily Report from the Journalism Committee

Oil Spills by Kyle

Today wasn’Äôt the best day of the trip. Well it was probably fun for other people but I was sick. We went to the Pratt Museum and it was really fun. It was small but it had a lot of important information. The most important thing to me was the exhibit about the Exxon oil spill. I knew that the oil spill was big but after going through this exhibit I was shocked. I never really knew much about the Exxon spill but I was baffled by what had happened. My main issue with oil spills is that they are all 100% preventable. The Exxon spill was caused by bad choices and crew members that were unprepared. The spill really affected the locals too. They relied on the ocean to provide them food, the spill killed a lot of sea animals and made it impossible for fisherman to make a living. The spill also affected people who did not live on the shore. Exxon was hiring workers to clean up the oil. It was pretty simple work and it paid decently. Many people saw this job offer very inviting. So many people in fact, that they quit their current jobs and rushed to the oil spill. This left other jobs without work. Many people were hiring but no one wanted a job. The oil spill was a financial disaster for Exxon. In the first six weeks of the clean up it cost Exxon 95 million dollars! There was a movie on how the spill affected the wildlife and it was devastating. Birds, otters, whales, porpoises, and hundreds of seabirds all effected. The animals of Alaska have taken a lot of abuse. First the Russians came to Alaska and killed many animals for their pelts. Americans also hunted these animals to near extinction. Luckily these animals made a recovery but the oil spill was a giant sucker punch to the population. They also made a recovery thanks to special protection and help from us. Most of the oil spill has been cleaned up but there are still small traces. I don’Äôt think we will ever forget these disasters. Especially if they keep happening. Unfortunately there was a recent spill in Montana which has a diverse population of many animals that could be damaged by a simple mistake that could be prevented. We could all raise awareness for oil spills help clean up efforts as much as we can. But not so much that we have employment problems.

Alaskan History by Maddie

Today was a fairly laid back day for the AGLP family, and it was kicked off with a little bit of a different breakfast; pancakes! Soon after breakfast was over, we all traveled to the Pratt Museum and were sent off to learn some Alaskan history, geography, marine life, and much more. One main exhibit was about the 1964 earthquake; the exhibit talked about the damage to the land (and the Spit), flooding, and the giant waves that hit Hawaii, Japan, and Antarctica. As soon as everyone had finished looking at the museum and possibly hit the gift shop, we all loaded up in the vans and headed out for some free time to do whatever, whether that was out on the Spit, shopping in town, or even taking showers. Once everyone was done with their free time, we drove back to camp where a guy named Ed [Silleto] came to talk to us about how he got interested in ivory carving and being a teacher mentor throughout the Aleutian Islands. He described the intense cultural difference between where he used to live and the villages he has taught in. Ed even passed around a walrus skull with both tusks that he had received while on one of his trips; the native who had given it to him had first given it to his son to scrimshaw two walruses into the tusks before giving the skull to Ed. After Ed was done presenting, he gave us his website where you can go and order some of his carvings (www.bluewalruscarving.com). Not long after Ed left all the adults left to go out to dinner, so the Junior Leaders were in charge of cooking noodles and vegetables for dinner. Then we played an extreme game of Frisbee in one of the pastures until hug time and then bed time. Tonight will be our last night in the tents the rest of the trip. Tomorrow morning we leave for Palmer so we will be staying in the church. I know I will miss being with the other people in my tent because we really got to know each other, but I'm glad we don't have to worry about setting the tents up anymore. On the other hand, I am super excited for our activities the next three days and I can't wait to have even more spectacular adventures!