On June 25th 2011, people will join hands on beaches around the world to voice their opposition to expanding offshore oil drilling, and their support for a clean energy future. If you'd like to participate (or organize the event in your area), visit http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/ . Last year there were events in 43 countries.
the gigantic flaw in that thinking is that as supply decreases, prices always increase. A 33 year year supply at 100 dollars a barrel, will last how long at $1000 a barrel? $5000 a barrel? Any guesses?
PS look at US Government’s statistics/estimates of natural gas “proved reserves” in the 1970s, then look at them today. Wow. Were they wrong then, or now? Or did technology change? Answer, all of the above.
The US Government apparently has a policy pursuant to which it would rather fight wars in other countries in order to continue to pump out THEIR oil fields, instead of increasing domestic drilling. I personally find that morally offensive. How many young soldiers have died or been crippled in the wars that keep our oil coming by tanker?
Shameless bump. Check the ''hands'' website for an event near you, this coming Saturday.
wow sounds like a good cause!! They want to drill off Margret River, West Australia…insanity!
Good cause. Reminds me that I need to finish washing the biodiesel I had my students make in lab, so that I can try it out in my car.
Holding hands on the beach, can’t forget “i’d like to teach the world to sing” (which ironically turned into “I’d like to buy the world a Coke”)… everybody did lots of that kind of stuff back in the 70s. Stick it to “the Man”, man! the big oil companies will just laugh, particularly as most people will drive to the beach in their cars, to join in. And as for the politicians who actually vote on things like national energy bills, well, guess who they get the most campaign contributions from? surfers? or the oilies?
If you’re going to fight something, maybe try to shut down the nuke plants. Given what happened in Japan, there is at least some momentum there.
PS “clean energy future”? the biggest untapped reserve of clean energy right now is frozen natural gas under the China Sea… just can’t mine it yet, too far underwater. Figure out a way to get at that stuff and we can stop burning oil, which is just darn filthy in comparison.
So I guess this means you won't be participating?
Wow, a chance to feel good about my silly self…
I’d rather feel real!
roger
I’m guilty…I drive a car and am dependent on everything oil.
So I will not be a hypocrite and be there until I become like Ghandi ,…walking, riding a bike, growing food in my own garden, and spinning my own cotton, sewing my own clothes.
Which is not likely to happen until we run out of oil.
we will never “run out” of oil or for that matter any commodity… all else being equal (eg. assuming no major technological shift in its production methods, which is probably an heroic assumption in the long run), it will just become more and more expensive, and will (or should) primarily become used only for its highest/most valuable purposes. (there willl always be rich people who value it enough to burn as a motor fuel even if it was $400/gallon…vintage race car owners, for example).
note that, as any commodity becomes more expensive, the incentive to find it increases proportionally…for petroleum based products, active drill rig count depends on the price per barrel. More sensible to look for new sources (deeper drilling) as the value of the product climbs. And, substitutes make more sense. Cars powered by hydrogen are more likely if crude oil prices triple, no?
Plus people actually drive less if it costs more, at least in the long run. If gasoline was $15 a gallon, more people would ride bikes to work, invest in 50mpg hybrids, or live closer to their jobs. Surfers might choose to live close to the beach, even if it means being in a 800 square foot shack instead of a 4000 square foot air conditioned McMansion 25 miles or 50 miles inland.
In my opinion the real issue with offshore drilling is forcing the drillers to internalize their externalities— ie pay for the true costs they impose on society, such as oil spills, visual blight. In theory at least that could be done by law, requiring drillers to carry a couple billion dollars worth of spill/leak insurance, maintain cleanup crews and containment gear on site, and imposing substantial civil and criminal penalties.
Or, we can go hold hands on the beach, and hope that the oil companies just get a lot nicer all by themselves. Both methods MIGHT work. But I’ve dealt with several of these major conglomerates on a professional level, and from what I have seen, they respond primarily to economic signals and legal requirements, rather than expressions of public opinion.
Have a good gathering. I might show up too, there is still a bit of the 70’s left in me. For old times sake I’ll even sing along!!
Keith, I agree with you. And I like the surfboards you make.
Mike, you are a hopeless romantic and I admire you for it. And I like very much the surfboards you build.
Mr. Tate, If I build a nice surfboard or make a few fins will you like me too? I'll make 'em real shiny!
I'm so lonely......where are all those hands going to be?
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Surfers might choose to live close to the beach, even if it means being in a 800 square foot shack instead of a 4000 square foot air conditioned McMansion 25 miles or 50 miles inland.
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SWIMPAL and I made that choice.
874 sq ft bungalow in an older neighborhood a quarter mile from the sand and we are self-employed so no commuting.
I'll be biking to the event and hope you will too......
Thanks for the heads up Mike. I'll check it out, understanding full well that the result might be in the far off future.
There's plenty of event sites in California, I'm glad you're going to make it...
What puzzles me is how the Aussies (2 sites, Byron Bay and Perth) let the Kiwis hold 11 events.
No sheep jokes or anything?
No sheep jokes but when we were working our horses, on the old meadow gold farm across from lani’s last hands across session, and I say to my horses. “hey , why the long faces?”
They tell me to look across the street, I look and see a traffic jam both directions for miles. What up I say? My depressed long faced horses tell me about 40 hand holding humans with black garbage bags will somehow represent an oil spill have caused enough disturbance trying to cross the road that a huge traffic. jam has occurred.
“That sure is a lot of pollutants coming out of those idling cars in the make shift parking lot on Kam highway.” I say.
Horses lift their tails and the meadow muffins start a coming out. " I got your global warming right here human" says the gray mare.
“real funny” I reply.
Horse rears up and gives a hi-o-silver. “WTF” he says, " is that a black garbage bag that is suppose to represent an oil spill flying across the water toward haleiwa beach park?"
“Don’t be so critical” I say “It was the intent and not the result of probable turtle or marine mammal or bird death from that flying garbage bag.”
“Have a carrot and relax”
The gelding’s eye phone rings (ring tone wild horses, rolling stones) and I answer.
“Is this your phone gelding?”
“Yes it is human.”
It is someone from swaidlucks? or something like that looking for JulietLove11???
yeah, I’ll be riding my bike up for that, then riding it to work. I hate buying gas once a month for the car, but the wife doesn’t like sweating as much as I do.
That was funny bb. Mike
I do not let politicians or their parties interpret data for me. I get my statistics from the US Department of Energy. If I can't trust the DOE, who can I trust?
It is inevitable that we will deplete the world’s oil reserves, more likely sooner than later. Fossil fuels took on the order of 100 million years to form. Our rate of fossil fuel consumption has increased exponentially along with our population growth (3 billion to 6 billion people from 1960 to 2000).
The supply of oil is finite. As in physics, there is no perpetual motion machine in biology – oil reserves do not regenerate spontaneously. Assuming we can pump oil as fast as we are currently consuming it (but we can not), world proved oil reserves will be gone in roughly 33 years.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) reported estimates of world proved oil reserves (2005) to be between 1.1 and 1.3 trillion barrels.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/reserves.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
Divide 1.2 trillion barrels by 84 million barrels/day (global consumption) = a 14,286-day (39.14-year) supply. These data are from 2005, so 39.14 years - 6 years = a 33-year supply.
The US “proved” oil reserves total 21 billion barrels while US consumption of oil was over 22 billion barrels from the beginning of 2005 to the end of 2007.
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_psup_dc_nus_mbbl_a.htm
BTW oil shales are neither oil nor shale. They must be mined and then heated to retrieve the paraffin-like substance. There is no current technology to commercially convert oil shale to a usable energy source. Besides, all we have to do to get it is remove the Rocky Mountains – slight exaggeration but it communicates the point.