If one thinks of the sea as nothing more or less than an immense reservoir of gas and oil, the oil companies are undoubtedly delighted, free to drill as they please. But this also means turning a blind eye to the long-term consequences. In the United States, no fewer than 68 national parks risk paying the (extremely high) price of the oil revival sought by President Donald Trump. We are talking about wild territories, repositories of biodiversity and symbols of American identity; and that alone should be enough to convince anyone to respect them. If further reasons are truly needed, one need only recall that every park is an engine for tourism. In 2017, these 68 national parks together welcomed more than 84 million visitors, who injected 4.5 billion dollars into local economies, supporting almost 60,000 jobs.

Trump's plan for offshore drilling

To piece together the story, we need to go back a few months, specifically to 4 January 2018, when the Washington administration announced its intention to go all in on offshore drilling in search of hydrocarbons. As announced by the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, this means issuing 47 new five-year licences which, taken together, cover 90 per cent of the territorial waters of the United States. The sea surrounding federal territory is, in short, once again being treated as a potential reservoir, throwing out all the safeguards that the Barack Obama administration had put in place following the catastrophe of the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

68 national parks threatened by drilling

The first victims of this return to oil risk being the 68 national parks situated in coastal areas. The alarm comes from a report published by two associations dedicated precisely to the protection of parks and nature reserves: the National Parks Conservation Association and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Drilling, the report states, will also affect some coastal areas that had remained untouched for decades, such as those of Florida and Alaska. The environmental consequences risk being devastating: problems for fishing, interference with the migration routes of whales and dolphins, an intensification of climate change, industrialisation of coastlines, with all that this entails for local communities. Not to mention the risk of accidents.

It comes as no surprise that, following Zinke's announcement, opposition erupted from the public and also from the governors of several states, both Democratic (California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington) and Republican (Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and South Carolina).

From Alaska to California, everything that risks being lost

The report goes on to list, one by one, all the national parks that will be affected in some way. And setting out in black and white their economic value too.

National Parks Conservation Association @NPCA

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Alaska's national parks generate $868.8 million in economic output and support 9 thousand jobs. These same parks are now threatened by @SecerrtaryZinke's plan to expand offshore drilling. npca.org/offshore #ProtectOurCoast

♥ 23 23 mag 2018 · Apri su X →

In Alaska, there are as many as 10 coastal parks, recording 2.18 million visits a year, with an estimated contribution to the economy of 868.8 million dollars and 9,932 jobs. The parks are the principal reason that draws many visitors to these often quite remote places, sustaining a thriving tourism and hospitality industry whose contribution to the United States GDP surpassed one billion dollars in 2015. In addition to the brown bear, Arctic fox, polar bear and hundreds of species of birds and fish, these areas are the habitat of several endangered animals such as the humpback whale and the Steller sea lion.

In California, too, there are 10 coastal national parks, home to a wealth of biodiversity impossible to describe in a few lines. To give just one example, more than five hundred species of birds have been recorded in the Point Reyes National Seashore coastal reserve alone, nearly 50 kilometres north of San Francisco. The economic output of the national parks is estimated at 994.9 million dollars, with a total of 26.3 million visits a year and 9,761 jobs created. As a whole, California's tourism and hospitality industry alone was worth more than 22 billion dollars in 2015 and employed more than 418,000 people.

Opening photo © Héctor Mota / Flickr