Some great comments from y'all in the oil spill piece. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read and comment on it.
The NYT ran a piece about the oil contamination that's been going on in the Niger Delta for about tha last 50 years now. Unbelieveable. I urge everyone to read that. And remeber the term, "externalization of cost" the next time someone tells you how "cheap" oil is as an energy sorce: It's cheap because these companies never have to pay to clean up after themselves afterwards.
This insanity needs to end. Electric Cars, Solar, wind... I favor Nuclear myself, in the near-term anyway. But the "burning shit" model (oil, coal) of generating power needs to end.
This will be a great time for the rest of the world to realize that the United States is no longer able to do anything. Time for some other country to take the lead and pump massive R&D into this.
ReplyDeleteMy car will die in six years, and I expect to replace it with a 21st century vehicle. Hybrids don't go far enough.
Didn't Haliburton just purchase a company that deals in oil cleanups?
ReplyDeleteSeems everyone profits off of oil EXCEPT the rest of the people - we will be forced to live with this crap for years to come.
I live in Florida. Clearwater has some of the best beaches in America as well as a very sensitive ecosystem.
You can pretty much kiss those goodbye becasue once the well is capped or whatever and BP stopped paying out money, local governments are going to be forced with the effects of the oil spill, and more likely then not, clean up efforts will be put on the back burner for something as stupid as fixing a city fountain or whatever...
Steeve,
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy (you wouldn't be the first) but I'm holding out hope that America will still take the lead. And once we turn that corner, not only will be be on the road to REAL enegry independence, but we'll be on the road to silencing Limabugh, Beck, and all the other political, techonolgical and social luddites once and for all. (Yeah, I know: I'm crazy.)
BTW... the problem with Hybrids, as with the Chevy Volt-design (whcih IS a big improvement on hybrids) is the insistance that we actually NEED that IC Engine. Take it out, along with the tramission, Gas Tank, 10-20 Gallons of GAS, Engine Support structure, alternator, radiator, etc... not to mention the now excess BODY, and you could cut that mass of the car in half pretty easily. That doubles it's range even with the current technology. Easily enough for day to day driving, and for long trips, how about a 2nd battery, one that you'd trade in at various charging stations along the way, leaving your dead one (for them to charge up for the next guy) and picking up a freshly charged one for, say... $10 or so? No reason that couldn't work, and we don't need a LICK of new technology to make it happen. Just the will, and an open mind. Give it 20 years, maybe less. (Assuming another Republican doesn't come in and fuck it all up.)
Kevin,
I hope you're wrong, but I fear you may be right. About the only justice I see is that a lot of these RW Fools and Oilmen bought property along the gulf. About the time it's all worthless, maybe they (and consequently the rest of the country) will finally see the light. Shallow confort, I know, but it may mean that cleanup DOESN'T get put on the backburner.
Interestign point about Haliburtion's "spill profiteering" here. And these hypocritical scumbags accuse OBAMA of "taking advatage of the spill." They're so disgusting. It makes me sick.
Thank you both for your comments.
In 20 years I want my car running on nanobots putting hydrogen atoms together with tiny fingers.
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