Oil spill

[jfrazierjr]

I don't feel comfortable saying what I would like to say about this so I will limit it to the briefest statement I can make.

My feeling is this is way worse than anyone thinks and will forever be one of the greatest catastrophes in man's history and no amount of money can fix it. All that remains is for the domino effect to play out and see just how harsh the fallout is. BP says they will do this or that, politicians say this or that will happen but they are truly incapable of correcting the matter. I also feel that all the oil companies share in this inexcusable destruction because they have suppressed better ideas than oil for a really long time. This flat out comes down to greed and ineptness, stupidity and carelessness.

While I don't disagree with the fact that greed and ineptness is a part of the problem, I would ask what what ideas are better than oil? I honestly want to know, not because I want to start a disagreement.

PS. I will stop myself now because I don't want to stand on this soapbox and I don't want to alienate anyone who honestly believes this is not a huge deal. It doesn't make any difference at this point because what will happen is what will happen. This site is an oasis from reality for me and filled with imagination of what could be. I prefer for it to stay that way because I for one don't need any more reality in my daily life. I think this hole they punched into the ocean floor blowing oil out of control into the environment is absolutely overwhelming.

This is a huge deal both the the environment (which will heal) as well as the livelihood of millions of people, but I disagree that it does not make a difference at this point. It may well make a very big difference in the lifestyles of millions of US citizens via higher energy costs. There are plenty of conspiracy theories and while I won't say that I endorse any specific ones, it would not surprise me one bit if any/all of them are true(well, perhaps not one that says aliens caused the thing to blow up(if there is one)...)

One thing to remember is that the crude oil was not leaking in the ocean on day 1 or 2, but only after the well sunk did the structure break apart and cause the "oil spill". I highly expect that at the end of it all(even if we the people don't hear it) that the sinking of the rig(and thus the oil leak in the water) was caused by the massive amounts of water pumped into the rig in order to try to contain the blaze which weakened the structure to the point of collapse. This collapse then caused the shaft to break. The real question is: why did the people who were there "fighting" the fire not know enough about the oil rig's structural limits to stop dumping more water onto the darn thing? Just as importantly, why were there no structural engineers yelling "STOP PUTTING WATER ON THE THING!!!"

[Wannabehero]

While I don't disagree with the fact that greed and ineptness is a part of the problem, I would ask what what ideas are better than oil? I honestly want to know, not because I want to start a disagreement.

One idea that has merit, but requires further development, is algae of all things.

Just for clarification, Algal fuels are a category of biofuels that are derived from algae (yay pond scum!). They have advantages in that they don't compete with food crops for land-mass or with human populations for water sources, algae fuels are a net-zero CO2 factor, and algal farms have the potential to be incredibly space-dense (don't take up much area) and far more efficient than traditional foodstock sources (such as soy, corn, or sugarcane). And just for some extra icing on the cake, the bi-products of algal farming are supremely suited as plant fertilizer and animal feedstock.

The real issues faced by this technology (and pretty much every green power technology) is infrastructure and technology readiness, which equate to big expenses that only recently have people begun to consider worthwhile.