...it's because it is called "Yosemite."

If you ask me (and someone did ask me, so I've got a reason to be talking about this...) one of the prime reasons that ANWR "energy exploration" seems to be gaining support is because the words used as synonymous with "oil drilling" are pretty, and the words used to describe the land it will be done on sound like a government prison facility.

Are you kidding me?  Who in their right mind (or left mind) would want to protect something with that name?



Apparently Sorkin agrees with me... You don't see many politicians asking to pave Yosemite National Park, do you?  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the name is not habitually shortened to YNP (which would be no less hard to pronounce than ANWR - and just as intuitive as "Yose-mite.") 

Sure, there's a decent chance that geography plays a role - few people are motivated to protect a refuge that they'll never visit in a land that is covered in snow and ice.  But - why not call it something that would give it the respect those who are passionate about it feel it deserves?

It's a lot harder to get approval for a drilling project when congress has to approve rights for defiling the "Arctic Pristine Refuge" (and NOT APR)  than it is to sink a drill into ANWR.

Why is it that those with passion and intellectual capacity (environmentalists) rarely see that using the same technique (anger and logic) with a group of people who don't want to listen (industrialists & bureaucrats) usually doesn't work? 

The key to having an acronym that works is to invest the time to make sure everyone knows what it means.  ANWR certainly doesn't qualify there.  KFC, IBM, and DKNY have paid their dues (and massive advertising bills.)  Can anyone tell me how much ANWR spends on marketing?  (Perhaps this is why there are currently no advertisers on Google for "ANWR tourism"?)

What will it take for this to change?  A realization that brand is important and that we Americans are motivated not by logic but by our passions.  Appeal to my sense of patriotism and pride before you try to guilt me into protecting that patch of snowy land... and I just might show up with my long-johns.