Yes, its bad. Really bad. But if you added up ALL of the spills, blowbacks, leaks, etc... in the history of the Oil industry, taken together they don't add up to the damage inflicted on the world in a week or 2 of automobile use.
Take the Exxon Valdez. The article says it killed "tens of thousands of seabirds, otters and seals along with 250 eagles and 22 killer whales".
Do you have any idea of the total roadkill per day on U.S. highways alone?
Oil is BAD STUFF. Oil let's us do fun/easier stuff.
100% of the incremental gain in daily production since the mid 1970's, 100%!, came from offshore production. If governments were insane enough to stop all off shore production, billions of people would starve in short order and the world plunged into chaos - simple as that.
We are between a rock and a hard place, but there is no question as to what is not going to happen. No matter what, the world is going to look for, and try to produce, Oil & Gas offshore, and sh*t happens. All those pundits telling you NOT to listen to us Peak Oil lunatics just assumed that technology will be able to solve the deep water issues; egh! wrong, thanks for playing!
Here are some plain truths for the FOS:
The folks that whined about this the loudest drove their car to work today, then to the gym, then to a protest... each of them killed a bird or 2, several toads, countless insects, snakes, lizards, your cat... and tomorrow they are going to do the same - they are FOS.
The various national governments around the world are going to continue to produce and explore offshore while giving voice to the knuckle headed jag offs mentioned above to continue to whine about ocean birds killed by Oil - they are FOS.
Vegetarians are going to order a bowl of oatmeal, with raisons and sugar... the machines necessary to raise their non-animal foods are going to kill thousands of rabbits, birds, foxes, groundhogs, mice, etc... that make their home in Oat, Wheat, or Corn fields, the trucks and trains that deliver their food are going to wrack up the road kill, as is the pollution emitted by these machines... but its all OK because these folks MEANT WELL. After indulging in a bowl of grains, berries, and skim milk, these mealy mouthed nit wits are going to DRIVE over to an abortion rights rally (after all, killing animals is inhumane; killing unborn children that might have been inconvenient is OK), kill a few more animals on the way (ever break down on a highway? Ever notice all of the smaller, dried up road kill? If you drive, you did this in between songs by the BeeGees and Snoop Dog... vegan or no), and then consume some bottled water - bottled in PLASTIC made from an offshore Oil well - these people are FOS.
In the end, the world will run out of Oil... and not all that far into the future, maybe a lifetime more or less - and that is NOT FOS.
12 comments:
I recall watching some news show, nightline I believe, years ago describe some new energy source that would reduce costs, heat our homes, and do all sorts of wonderful things. But, alas, it had some drawbacks. It would cause X number of fires per year, cause Y number of explosions per year, and asphyxiate Z number of people per year. After some 90% of the audience decided it was too dangerous the host explained it was Natural Gas.
At that moment I was pretty certain that while by definition 50% must be below average; e bottom half was overrepresented on the telescreen. All these years later nothing has changed.
I must respectfully disagree on impact. While I understand your point and concur up to a point, I don't believe that this is about the death of one animal or even the deaths of millions. The problem is with the impact on an ecosystem. As long as the spill can be contained right now, the system will self-repair. If it goes on for months, who knows. That does not lead me to believe that off-shore drilling will cease. It leads me to believe that the cost of clean up will be so high that we will have to pay much higher energy prices as a result. We all know the effect of $100.00 per barrel oil. I can feel for a fisherman who can't fish. I also feel for the teacher who can't teach and the mother trying to put food on the table. We will all pay. The big surprise to me is that there was not an immediate run up in the ppb yesterday. I know higher energy prices are coming but I am in no hurry for them.
Hi Kathy:
I was not defending environmental disasters, just pointing out our collective complicity in it all.
This spill just isn't that big of an issue to the WORLD market (if you live on the Gulf you might feel differently). The folks that are against offshore drilling will use this as a lever, not taking into consideration the impacts of NOT drilling (at least in the short to medium term... long term it won't matter a wit... which a reasonable person might then conclude that since its inevitable, why don't we do the "right thing" now? Well, the "right thing" is an abstract and very much up for debate.
The safety record of the offshore industry has been fairly impressive - the question is is that about to change given the complexities and physical realities of deep water and deep terra drilling. I am not qualified to express an opinion, but I AM qualified to debate the probabilities.
Something I wanted to point out is our FOS hypocrisy and how it affects our political systems. Peak FOS is overwhelming that system IMHO.
Kathy,
Eco-systems always repair themselves or are replaced. Not that many years ago the land you farm was scraped clean by glaciers. No trees, no shrubs, no weeds, no grass, no birds, no animals, no soil. All of it was scraped to bare rock and rubble. Yet, here we are in Massachusetts.
This disaster is not 0.01% of that. It will ruin lives. It will cost billions. It will leave a tarry mess that may take decades to degrade and be covered. Life on the gulf coast will still go on, however. They have my sympathy, though. The mess may last a lifetime or more.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Like to point out that 47 million gallons leak into U.S. coastal waters through natural leakage every yr. I think all will be okay in the big picture.
My cousin use to have this poster of a cat hanging on for dear life suspended in the air. The large block lettering said “shit happens”. I don’t blame bush for Katrina and I don’t blame Obama for this. We live in a large highly complex society, no one could respond perfectly in every situation. The problem with our culture is the ability to admit we do not control everything.
Jeffers,
You knocked that one out of the park. The self righteousness of the left blinds them to the fact that we all use oil, we all need oil and without it we are up shit creek without a paddle.
Dex,
I read your entire blog yesterday. Awesome.
Everyone,
I don't want to sound soft on the environmental thing. It costs a lot of money to keep things clean, and it is worth it. It's just that the "permanent damage" argument just doesn't hold. Nothing on this Earth is permanent, not even the bad things.
Environmentalism is not about the Planet, it is about us. It is about keeping the world clean enough to live in comfortably and in good health. The birds and trees don't know the difference, and when we are gone, they'll be back.
Looking back at what I grew up in, the difference between now and 40 years ago is remarkable. I grew up in coal and steel country. There were "bony piles" (mine tailings) everywhere. They were big black piles of rock with a coal content too low to be useful. They were all on fire and burned for decades. They smoldered and belched sulfurous smoke. The stream beds were all bright orange, and the water was orange as well from mine runoff. There were no fish. The hills behind the steel mill had no trees. Nothing much else grew either. The dust was so bad that you had to dust your windowsills every day, and wash the windows every month. The air peeled the paint off the houses.
When I visit today, it has been very much cleaned up. The piles have been removed or covered and stabilized. The streams are clear and trees are growing. The dirt is gone, but so is the steel mill. This kind of progress has occurred across the country, and I am glad for it. The earth heals.
We will be paying higher prices for fuel due to this accident. It will cost tens of billions of dollars to clean up. As consumers of oil, it is our responsibility, ultimately. There is always the risk of an accident, and we assume that risk when we put a gallon of gas in the car.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I'm not angry, just want everyone to discuss real issues based on real problems. For instance, the conclusions you come to about energy use are completely different if base on resource depletion ( a real problem ) or global warming ( bull s#!t ).
Regards,
Coal Guy
Thanks coal guy
I need to get back to working on it. I have a bunch of half written posts haha. I have been busy with work, school, my daughter and my son is on the way.
Yes, the earth's ecosystem heals itself after we stop dumping pollutants on it. I'd be careful say that we've seen real progress here in the US, however. Yes, we've cleaned up some processes, but mainly we've just moved those factories to other places, outsourcing our pollution. That is, a good part of the reason things seem cleaner around this part of the world is because it is now far dirtier in other parts of the world than it was 40 years ago.
Just so we're clear on that.
Stephen,
It is a big bad problem. We've outsourced the pollution and jobs that go with them. Things imported into the US ought to be built in factories the meet US standards, or pay a duty X times the difference in production costs. Same goes for safety. We shouldn't be exporting industrial accidents and death, either. I think that is part of Greg's FOS post. DISGUSTING!
Regards,
Coal Guy
Stephen B and Coal Guy:
If you look back a few posts I covered how the U.S. exports its pollution and industrial maiming to other nations - companies like Apple and Dell internalize profits and externalize costs like a mthrfer.
Guess who benefitted politically as far as money? Not who you might think... but then again, who said the FOS are not brilliant marketers of BullSh*t?
Post a Comment