Flaring at Prudhoe Bay | 2002 | 59 in. x 74 in.

Gas flaring at Endicott—an offshore facility operated by BP in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, Alaska. Endicott is situated on two man–made gravel islands, connected to the mainland by a 1.5–mile man–made gravel causeway. Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, an Iñupiaq conservationist and former mayor and health aide at Nuiqsuit (the Iñupiat village closest to the Prudhoe Bay oil fields) connected gas flaring to significant increase in respiratory illnesses among the community members of her village. She writes in Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point: “What was contributing to this increase in respiratory illnesses? The most overwhelming issue was that oil development around Nuiqsut had increased, and had gotten closer. The worst nights on call were nights when many natural gas flares occurred. Those flares release particles that traveled to us. Increased concentrations of particulate matter from flares occur during inversions, a bowl–like trap, with cold air trapped by warm air.”