However, its hardly large enough to move the needle on carbon emissions. I mean compared to the really big forces at work that is nothing. They wont get 30 years of oil out of there, and they know it. So its just rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic -- a project that wont meet its expectations, going into a place that was going to be massively disturbed anyways. In fact, the project may not even get built because they would need to build on permafrost and turns out that is super difficult to do properly especially when its melting. There are many reasons to be pessimistic about the future but the reality is that wether or not this drilling project goes forward does not make any difference in what the future will be like.
There are however a ton of important things we can do as a society to make a better future for ourselves and those who come after us. We can do those things now, even as the death cult around fossil fuels continues its business as usual. In fact, by doing those things we make them less powerful. So while its good to recognize that things are changing irrevocably, its not like we are helpless. The important thing is to find alternatives to the status quo, find ideas that make us more resilient and then support those initiatives.