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Thank you for the follow up post.
The oil company had been given permission by the U.S. Geological Survey to cut corners and operate the platform with casings below federal and California standards. Investigators would later determine that more steel pipe sheating inside the drilling hole would have prevented the rupture.
It is sad when it is human misjudgment that is responsible for errors regarding technology that is used by the human animal. Too many times we are monkeys with car keys 🙁
RBM
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Good point on the natural oil seepage, I’ve fouled my shoes on tarballs on Southern California beaches before and had a suspicion that it wasn’t necessarily due to human activities, but rather geological ones.
But regarding having to satisfy the energy demands of billions, I’m skeptical that we have to continue to “eat the earth” (and despoil at scale). Or at least not consume it at present rates. How many terajoules do tens of billions of people require to achieve a sufficient level of comfort that civilization can continue to produce the art and technology and ideas that lift people out of sub-subsistence poverty?
And what percentage has to be wasted in order to distribute it when and where needed and to provide a decent but not decadent level of comfort? And I know that answer isn’t zero, some optimal level of waste is a lubricant. But there’s a LOT of unnecessary waste at the supply side (Carnot cycle, baseload) and the demand side (subsidized energy pricing, dumb grid and general lack of disincentives to reduce waste).
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@ Pauly
You might enjoy this:
Inventor, engineer and MacArthur Genius Grant-winner Dr. Saul Griffith thought he was an eco-prude, until he audited his total power consumption and learned he burns three times as much energy as the average European, and eight times as much as the average Carribeaner. Watch as he unveils Wattzon.com, a free online tool anyone can use to gain a deep understanding of their total energy footprint – and how to reduce their role in climate change.
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Was dead stuck looking for some fast replacement car keys – I’m in Chicago and came across http://www.omegalocksmith.com – one phone call out and problem solved for a cheap price.
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