LO: To identify and exemplify the OPPORTUNITIES and CHALLENGES in resource development

presented by permafrost and other periglacial features.

Write down at least 3 facts (with stats, dates etc…) about TAPS

Which sections of the TAPS is likely to face the biggest challenges? Why?

Economic Opportunity

The wealth generated by Prudhoe Bay and the other fields on the North Slope since 1977 is worth more than all the fish ever caught, all the furs ever trapped, all the trees chopped down; throw in all the copper, whalebone, natural gas, tin, silver, platinum, and anything else ever extracted from Alaska too. The balance sheet of Alaskan history is simple: One Prudhoe Bay is worth more in real dollars than everything that has been dug out, cut down, caught or killed in Alaska since the beginning of time.

Alaska historian Terrence Cole

Other Opportunities?

Cast your eyes over the GeoFile.

• You have 3 minutes to speed-read…

• What are the OPPORTUNITIES posed by TAPS?• Sort them into SEEP categories.

What are the impacts and challenges of the poor political / managerial decision making?

SOCIAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICAL

OPPORTUNITY

CHALLENGE

Suggested Reading

• http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/18/us-oil-alaska-spill-idUSTRE76H0VA20110718

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Alaska_Pipeline_System

• http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/how-much-life-is-left-in-the-trans-alaska-pipeline

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-400276/Deadhorse-Alaska--town-end-earth-making-global-oil-markets-tremble.html

• http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc02/pap0870/p0870.htm