Earlier this month, the Department of the Interior approved Shell Oil Company's plans to drill exploratory wells off the coast of Alaska in 2012. The move marks an important step toward opening up Alaska's outer continental shelf—one of world's most pristine and inhospitable marine environments—to oil and gas development. What are the risks to Arctic ecosystems? Have cleanup efforts improved since last year’s gulf oil spill? And what impact will the decision have on drilling elsewhere around the globe?
Join us for a live chat on this page at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 18 August, to ask Michael Macrander, Shell's leading ecologist in Alaska, and Henry Huntington, science director at the Pew Environment Group's arctic program, about the environmental risks and energy benefits of drilling in the Arctic. You can leave your questions in the comment box below before the chat starts.
Michael Macrander
Henry Huntington
