I don't want to argue, I think you are a great poster on here, but its just not really technically or financially feasible to not use fossil fuels. Yes, we can reduce, absolutely, but there are many things that oil is used in other than gas. All plastics and rubbers, things like asphalt, things like chemicals that are used in other manufacturing. Its actually quite amazing. Add to the fact that China and India will be using more oil than America in about 10 years, makes it all that much harder. I hope the best case scenario plays out...that BP's domes can reduce the impact. There are some positives going on as well. Weather has turned favorable. The oils is light, sweet crude which is much, much different than the heavey crude from Valdez. In the warm water of the Gulf it actually evaporates fairly quickly. That's why when you follow the slick maps, you'll see sections start to break up and shrink. A lot of that is natural evaporation. They will also probably start burning again this week as well. I will admit, this whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.
Just heard on the news that Obama is trying to work with congress to change the cap from 75million to 10billion.
Gotta start somewhere. Investing in new energy tech could lead to a breakthrough that would make oil obsolete and power America's economy for hundreds of years or more. This may finally put some impetus to that.
I find it actually quite ironic, and a little sad, that BP is the company that about 5 days before this explosion talked about investing $8 billion additional in alternative energy over the next few years including major investment into cellulosic ethanol (the non corn ethanol).
I was going to respond to your earlier post, rachel maddow had someone on talking about this Monday, whomever it was says they think they can make it retroactive.
Now that the site is backup - here are some amazing pictures of the last moments before Deepwater Horizon sank...
Now imagine all that crap falling thousands of feet to the Gulf floor. That, and everything you don't see. I don't know how they are going to get through the tangled mess to get containment domes over anything.
I've been thinking about this for a while and talking with folks and I can try to explain in a bit more detail (this is taken from a coworker of mine that worked with Schlumberger for a while, and based on my own process engineering experience): Trueroxfan is basically correct, the bored out hole is kept under pressure usually from a combination of mud/gas/water as you drill. The pipe is put down through the bored hole and then the cement is pumped down the pipe until a certain level is reached. Basically, the intent of the cement is to hold the pipe in place and prevent blowout through the pipe from the bottom of the bore (the cement literally fills the bottom of the pipe - oil is actually collected from the sides after setting is complete). The cement that comes out of the pipe bottom goes up the sides into the bored area outside the pipe until a calculated "cap" is in place. The blowout prevention valves (BOPs) are placed on top of the pipe and then the whole system is tested for integrity. This is likely where the most critical mistake was made. Cementing is not a trivial exercise - the chemistry is only locally known at the bottom of the bore, and even that is fuzzy. Any hydrates in the area will swell the concrete with bubbles as it sets, severely impacting strength. To counteract these unknowns, the pipe is pressurized to the BOP settings before the pressure is relieved in the pipe. Any spike or dip in the pressure inside the pipe during this testing would indicate the concrete cap has ruptured or been compromised. One wonders if this test was done poorly. Alternatively, if the concrete was compromised from hydrates on the outside edges it could have easily fractured and failed after the testing. This might explain how the check valve at the bottom of the pipe and the BOPs failed since rocketing pieces of concrete would shoot up the pipe at speeds as high as the speed of sound.
Good summary of how things work, and how the explosion likely happened. http://cliffbourgeois.newsvine.com/...0-deepwater-horizon-a-failure-of-well-control
There IS a plan C as well. They are going to try to "top kill" the well by using the malfunctioning BOP as an injector to try to inject heavy liquids into the well to cap it at the source within the next 2 weeks. They will attempt this whether the collector works or not.
Bottom line...the ocean and ocean life are treated like they are expendable...and are taken for granted. One day...it's all going to catch up with us. When humans start giving the ocean the respect it deserves, then...maybe...there might be a future for humans that is not one of a dead or dying sea and crazy amounts of air pollution. I'll just say I'm glad I'm living now and not a few hundred years (or maybe even just a hundred years) in the future. Somehow, I don't think it will be worked out by then...and people will probably start living underground or something. Then, the underground will eat those above ground. And, so on... . If the human race plans to put the Earth in the hands of greedy corporations, then my personal opinion is all will be lost. That is...unless corporations start working toward actually saving, versus exploiting, the Earth. There is not much sign of that happening. This is a "how can we live and not be inconvenienced while maximizing profits now" planet. This is the recipe for dooming planet Earth. Good luck, future Earth dwellers. You are going to need it.
