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the oil spill in the gulf of mexico .any view points??

I'm going to let someone else take the lead on this one, unless there are no objections to me pontificating all over the free discussion forum?

derek, if you want trev to comment on the oil spill you might as well start a new thread/ topic lol.

Since Ephraim was apparently unwilling or unable to comment on the actual topic for discussion, I'll take that as leave for me to get this party started.

This oil spill, the one that is now larger than IRELAND and releases 1,500,000 - 2,500,000 GALLONS of oil a day, is EXACTLY the reason why research and development needs to be devoted to clean energy sources. In particular, there needs to be an emphasis on how to make such energy sources safe and sustainable. Its become clear that neither BP nor the US Federal Government are unable to come up with a viable solution to fixing the deepwater horizon spill. This is a failure of western society, that we collectively have become so greedy for oil that we're starting to drill for it with NO WAY to counteract any possible problems.

Recent reports have indicated that the Bush Administration reversed a previous administration's recommendations regarding deep water drilling, and furthermore it is well established that the Bush Administration, with a compliant Republican Congress, did everything in its power to obliterate regulations and oversight for this industry. Clearly, the idea that an oil spill didn't occur to the President who spent a decade drilling for oil in Texas, without ever finding any. This dogma of deregulation and letting the free market do as it pleases led to such protective organizations as the EPA to be completely powerless to even recommend against the deepwater horizon project. We now have to live with those idiotic, shortsighted decisions.

It has become clear that if the only way western society can satiate its lust for petroleum is to embark on drilling escapades that have potential consequences such as this one, that we have become too dependant on oil and gas. Our planet and our environment are suffering due to the addiction that afflicts us all. Its time for a change. So-called 'alternative' energy sources have become much more mainstreamed while we've been destroying the planet, and it is now possible to start cutting back on our reliance of liquified fossils in favour of energy sources that we can produce without destroying the earth, and that we can use without poisoning the very air we breathe. To give justice to the entire list of new, exciting energy sources available to our nations would take too long, so if you'll beg my indulgence I'll simply talk about two that are close to my heart and are proven to be successful on a wide scale; power sources that our nations can be using RIGHT NOW, if only they were given a chance.

We've all seen the silly jokes about hydro-electric power, all those silly dams literally blocking fish traffic in rivers. In British Columbia, where I live, almost ninety percent of our electricity comes from hydro power. This is because the system works. For those not entirely aware of the engineering behind it, the dams don't just sit there and do nothing; inside the dams are multiple turbines, which are connected to an electrical generator. When the water from a flowing source, such as a river, passes through the turbines, the turbines move, which activates the generator and produces electrical current. Hydro-electric power has the benefit of creating almost no greenhouse gas emissions, as well as being an eminently sustainable resource; you'll be able to use the dam in question as long as there's still a river there to flow water through the turbines. Obviously, consultation needs to be done with hydro-electric dams, since they are placed on rivers and can thus block fish from their spawning locations, threatening the species. Thanks to many decades of use in British Columbia and various other jurisdictions, hydro is considered a 'mature' technology, and its cost per kilowatt hour is much lower than other clean energy sources.

Finally, I'd just like to close with something on a technology I consider essential to creating a clean energy economy, geothermal power. Geothermal power is literally to take heat from lower in the crust of the Earth, and use the steam to power turbines, which are once again connected to electrical generators. Geothermal energy, contrary to popular belief, can be done almost anywhere, and does not need to be done specifically at volcano or hot spring locations. The key is to find areas with internal temperatures above 300 degrees fahrenheit, which can be done through drilling into the crust; a procedure we clearly have experience with. Once established, a geothermal plant will continue to produce electricity thanks to convection, in which warmer air from the deep crust pocket will continually be rising, while cooler surface air will forever be sinking to be heated by the deep crust pocket. This creates a nearly unlimited power source, which can be used to power nearby communities indefinately. Geothermal power also has a secondary application; the principles of geothermal engineering have allowed some companies to start building geothermal based space heating systems, whereby in summer months heat is sequestered within the crust of the Earth, and in the winter that originally stored heat is released back into the building. The one drawback of this technology is that thanks to a lack of research and development from western nations, it is an expensive technology that still has much to improve.

We all have the power to advocate for change, and now more than ever its important that we start making it clear that our society needs to start moving away from oil.

Thanks again for y'allls time. Its very obviously someone else's turn to speak.

See what ya done Derek

I don't understand why you all can't actually make substantial posts instead of just taking potshots at me for my posts.
If you aren't able to keep up with the conversation that's fine, but don't sit there and make that anyone else's fault.

Relax Trev I was making fun

If you think that's going to make me retract my argument, you're sadly mistaken.

Still not worth you getting annoyed about it to

i acctually read the whole thing lol. BP sucks, america, do something about it.

the end.

DreamCatcher wrote:

the oil spill in the gulf of mexico .any view points??

'Tis a shame no one else seems to want to venture an opinion, its actually quite a fascinating topic for those who have the will to discuss it.

It is interesting and I actually did read what you wrote Trev

i fucked up new topic

Is England getting involved in the spill? Cause BP is a British based company

How would Britain itself get involved? Perhaps Alex can confirm this, but is BP a government-owned company or is it a private company FROM Britain? If its just a private company using that name, then the nation itself wouldn't be liable, but if its government owned...

fuck Sweden offered to let us use there oil tankers to help but we refused

whoa! BP, british? wow. alex, please confirm if you can.

A quick google search proves that BP is independantly owned and thus the nation of Britain would not be liable

BP = British Petroleum, so yeah they're based in the UK, but they're an indie company so it's their fucking job to clean it up, not ours. It's not even America's job, but the govmt's getting involved because it's THEIR fucking beaches that are getting raped.

Ahh so we're helping. I like that

helping them by helping yourselves. but helping nevertheless, which i think is super!

OK so now my whole computer is fucked up, and the only way I can use the laptop upstairs is if someone else in the neighborhood is online. Until then I'm at the mercy of my phone

haha. you should bake some biscuits for the neighbours! lol.

No

So its possible it could be weeks or months until I start writing again

oh jesus! not good kell, not good. you should take my advice and be nice to your nighbours (which was the point of my last post) and ask them to switch their wi-fi on all the time.