"environmentalists, who revere the plain as a maternity ward for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds..." 

How is it possible, with climate change, that an area of the Arctic is a maternity ward for polar bears. I have been under the impression that most polar bears have died out, because of the melting of the glaciers. And caribou? Didn't the environmentalist tell us that the Alaskan pipeline would destroy the caribou population if built. The picture makes it look different from the impression, the environmentalists have painted, that this area is an oasis.