Thoughtocracy

Blood Oil in Asia

The Thinker — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:13:51 +0000

Chevron and French energy giant Total have been implicated in claims that hired soldiers in Burma murdered civilians and forced them into hard labor to keep gas exports flowing:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100706/wl_time/08599200196200

This type of report typifies what Thoughtocracy has predicted: that as oil supplies are depleted, the violence to control them will increase.

Colorado at forefront of Energy Deregulation

The Thinker — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:08:23 +0000

Colorado is trying to do away with what little regulations it has on its oil and gas drilling. The state is a key player in this movement because it has one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the United States, and the public should fear the pollution of the nation’s water supply when dangerous practices are not regulated (as detailed in the HBO documentary, Gasland).

A new deregulatory push in the energy heartland (Salon, Friday, JUL 2, 2010).

Ongoing Oil Spills in Africa

The Thinker — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:43:40 +0000

The media’s eye is on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but there has been ongoing leakage in Nigeria for 50 years as much as 546 million gallons of oil by some estimates. The crabs and shrimp are all gone, and life expectancy is the lowest in Nigeria, and people struggle to make a living as their environment dies.

Little attention is paid to this impoverished area, and attempts to publicize the plight are squelched. The spokeswoman for Shell Oil in Lagos, said, “We don’t discuss individual spills,” and witnesses have reported that soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month.

The environmental damage to the Niger delta may provide good clues for what type of damage Americans can expect to see in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html

Reach of Oil Spill

The Thinker — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:45:42 +0000

Satellite Images

More images can be viewed here:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/oilspill/

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?project=gulfofmexico

Projections

Reusable Dry Cleaning Bags

The Thinker — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:19:36 +0000

There are a couple solutions out there for cutting down on the waste associated with single-use dry cleaning bags: Take Them to the Cleaners, Again and Again.

Alternative Energy and Building Designs

The Thinker — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:28:43 +0000

This video is perhaps idealistic in its portrayal of the issues, but the building designs and implementations of renewable energy pique some interest.

Mexico’s Dwindling Oil Supply

The Thinker — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:17:01 +0000

Just as the oil supply of the United States fell in the 1970s and it had to transition to being an importer of oil instead of an exporter, Mexico’s wells are also going dry; it could become an oil importer by 2020. This March 8, 2010 New York Times article, Mexico Oil Politics Keeps Riches Just Out of Reach, states that Mexico’s production has fallen from almost 3.5 million barrels a day in 2004 to a projected average of 2.5 million barrels this year (2010), which is exactly the type of trending that occurred in the United States and elsewhere as more and more oil fields go dry.

Mexico is one of the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia, and as Mexican production and exports wayne, the United States will have to get its oil more and more from unfriendly countries like Venezuela or unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq. This shift of where America gets its oil is well-known to policy makers in Washington, and there are surely adjustments to foreign policy and military strategy that accompany it

Self-Reliant Cities

The Thinker — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:41:17 +0000

A common metric on a city’s self reliance is how much it depends on outside suppliers to feed its population. If separated from the outside world, how well (or indeed, how long) would a city last. Take Phoenix, AZ as one example: it exists in a desert. Without oil to fuel a steady stream of transportation, the city would die. It may as well be on the moon. This is a similar type of calculation performed by armies as they lay siege to a city. David Morris authored this paper on Self-Reliant Cities in 1987 where he says “A healthy city is a self-reliant city, capable of determining its own future. The self-reliant city emphasizes holistic planning. Local self-reliance builds a self-confident and engaged citizenry while it strengthens local economies and protects the environment.” There seems to be a need to revisit this analysis on the current global landscape.

Rising Ocean Acidity

The Thinker — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:16:43 +0000

Many media reports have challenged the notion that the global climate is warming, leading to increased skepticism from the public about the issue. Scientifically, we’re headed into terra incognito because we simply don’t know precisely what the climactic effects will be and a lot of research is trying to come up with good estimates: the majority consensus is that global temperatures will rise, but predictions differ on how much.

However, we do have lots of specific data about the vast amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. That alone should be the cause for great concern because the more CO₂ in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans will be; indeed, we are seeing an unprecedented rate of acidification. Rising ocean acidity can make the ocean uninhabitable for many creatures, and that can reverberate throughout the entire food chain. Shellfish, corals, and plankton are easily affected, but also types of algae have calcium coverings as protection. The L.A. Times ran a series, “The Primeval Tide of Toxins” (referenced in this blog) about how the acidic waters make the habitat more suitable for primordial creatures, like jellyfish, and we are witnessing a surge in their populations.

In short, climate is not the only potentially life-threatening result of human actions on the planet. There is an upcoming documentary on this subject named Acid Test.

FreeCycle

The Thinker — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:06:49 +0000

Freecycle is similar to Craig’s List, but it’s all about exchanging FREE stuff reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills http://www.freecycle.org/. For all that stuff lying around your house that’s still completely usable… but you want to get rid of.