Arctic “Exploitation”
Interesting choice of the word “exploit” in this article.
Congress is moving toward a Christmas week showdown that could end a quarter-century fight over whether to exploit the nation’s largest untapped reservoir of oil beneath the frozen tundra of an Alaska wildlife preserve.
Sure, exploit means “to use to one’s advantage,” but it also means “to make use of in an unethical manner.” When people hear that workers were “exploited,” they don’t think that they were simply put to work for a company… they think they were bent over a wooden desk and sodomized with a cactus as the company’s owners ran off to the Bahamas with their profits.
There’s nothing unethical or immoral about drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness. In fact, the majority of Alaskans are in favor of it. “Utilize” is a much more appropriate word.
