SEAL ISLAND, Alaska — The huge green dump trucks appear on the
stark horizon with a choreographed precision that continues with
only the briefest of interruption 24 hours a day despite
temperatures that sometimes dip to 70 degrees below zero. On
Seal Island, which has become ground zero in the latest standoff
between giant oil corporations and environmentalists in the
Arctic, trucks roll out 6 miles onto the ice pack. FOR THE
RECORD - This story contains corrected material. Oil exploration
workers have converted the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean
into ice highways, two roads six to eight lanes wide that in a
few months will dissolve into water. Men bundled into shapeless
masses by their cold weather gear stand by as the trucks deposit
ton and after ton of gravel on this artificial island that is to
become the platform for a new oil production facility. The
battle over this facility and the controversial undersea
pipeline that will carry the oil and gas to shore has been
fought even as oil ministers meet t