It’s time we kick the fossil fuel habit – melting ice caps, global weather weirding, and now the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico make this clear. And then there’s the economy, which, according to our esteemed Prime Minister Stephen Harper, trumps everything, as if there isn’t a planet to live on when we’re finished extracting resources like we were liquidating a business! With all due respect, Mr. Harper, it’s time to start fighting climate change now while we still have an economy to fight it with!
The Daily Kos put it this way:
[Louisiana Governor] Jindal probably likes the sound of his voice when he says he has a solution to dealing with this leak, but the fact that his solution is such utter nonsense underscores this one central, immutable fact: oil is dangerous, and there’s no way to make it safe. Yes, we’re addicted to it. No, we’re not going to stop using it overnight. But we must break that addiction. And if don’t learn that lesson from this tragedy, we’re going to be taught it again, and again. And each time the consequences will keep on getting worse.
Click here to read the full Daily Kos post.
Here is a video on how badly BP has dealt with the protecting the Gulf coast after the disaster – with a warning, there is very crude language in this video but many of us feel that kind of outrage when we see the @!!@@ mess in the Gulf – all done in the name of making an almighty dollar!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8kMXufu3w]
Read more:
“Conservative Economics, The Windmill Technique, and Climate Change“. Father Theo’s Blog.Wordpress.com
Join the FaceBook Group “1,000,000,00 Strong Against OffShore Drilling”
Click here to go to the Live Oil Spill Camera.
Well put… there’s no way that our fossil fuel crutch looks good the further you look. It’s not about cutting it out tomorrow, but we MUST start to make moves away from this habit when the going is good instead of a last minute fix.
🙂
Tim
BP will soon inject drilling mud and concrete into the broken pipeline at a pressure of 50 barrels per minute in an effort to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf. Unless they know the accurate volume of oil, along with the pressure at which it is escaping, there will be little chance of success.
Scientists claim that approximately 50,000 to 100,000+ barrels of oil a day are leaking into our coastal waters. Knowing those approximations, we can roughly calculate how many barrels of oil are escaping from the pipe every minute and how much pressure will be needed to cap the well:
•50,000 barrels a day / 24 hours a day / 60 minutes = 34.72 barrels per minute
•100,000 barrels a day / 24 hours a day / 60 minutes = 69.44 barrels per minute
In order for the “Top Kill” plan to work, the drilling mud and concrete must be forced into the pipe at a rate exceeding the pressure at which the oil is escaping. As you can see (above), BP might have a slim chance of success if the pressure from the pipe is below 50 barrels per minute. However, if the oil pressure is above that number (72,000 barrels a day or more), their attempt to seal the well will be ineffective.
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html
http://www.calculateme.com/Volume/Gallons/ToBarrels(Petroleum).htm
Well said, Christine. The word “economy” has always had an authoritative ring to it and since the struggles over the past two years from which many low-middle income people are not yet recovering (even though Harper and his Finance minister try say we are)it is even more intimidating. PatW
Thanks for the comments, folks. It is a challenging and difficult time to be living in, with an economic recession and environmental devastation everywhere one looks. But if we make the shift to a low-carbon world (economy and all!), it will be amazing! And I try to remember “shift happens” :):
http://350orbust.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/shift-happens/