The One and Only Climate Change thread...

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  • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

    Originally posted by Gary Ruben View Post
    For those of you who don't know and are following this, an atmosphere of pressure is atmospheric pressure....
    As we all know, things tend to happen in three's.

    Within 1 week of each other, we've had volcanic ash spreading over Northern Europe and raw sweet crude oil spreading over the Gulf of Mexico.

    One more similar event must happen very soon. Here's my list of possibilities:

    1) pop singer Cher, who has been dormant for a few years, will once again erupt intermittently over the summer, showering tears of "final farewell" over U.S. audiences as has occurred about 17 other summers

    2) Bernie Madoff, serving life in prison for massive fraud, will explode in his cell, and most of the missing money will drift through the cells, having been stuffed in his...

    3) Apple Computer's iPads will all simultaneously catch fire, spreading thick fumes of 1's and 0's throughout major U.S. metropolitan areas. Anyone breathing in these 1's and 0's will lose their normal voice and speak in monotone.
    Only the rushing is heard...
    Onward flies the bird.

    Comment


    • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

      Vlad,
      I think that it is a little more complicated than what you say. Fluids compress different amounts based on their bulk modulus of elasticity (compressibility). It can happen that a fluid of initially lower density compresses more than one of higher density and actually becomes relatively heavier than the latter. Different grades of oil have different thicknesses, viscosities, densities so I was wondering what happened on the ocean floor at high pressures.
      http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/bu...ity-d_585.html

      The US coast guard say the leak is 5,000 barrels per day, not 1,000 like BP was claiming. Just this morning BP has confirmed the higher number. They are not having any luck stopping the leak yet.

      Comment


      • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

        Originally posted by Paul Beckwith View Post
        Fluids compress different amounts based on their bulk modulus of elasticity (compressibility). It can happen
        I think that these data were already measured long time ago :D
        A short search reveals

        Crude oil density versus temperature and pressure
        http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/do...images/a09.htm

        Thus, in most cases the density is <1 g/cc, meaning that crude oil floats in water.

        Comment


        • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

          Originally posted by Paul Beckwith View Post
          The US coast guard say the leak is 5,000 barrels per day, not 1,000 like BP was claiming. Just this morning BP has confirmed the higher number. They are not having any luck stopping the leak yet.
          That sounds more like it. 1,000 barrels a day isn't much of a well for the kind of money they spend on the project.

          They have to find out why the blowout happened. Equipment failure, procedures, human error, whatever.

          I'm not clear who was operating the rig which I think was leased. Also with all the round number of the size of the leak I have to think they are guessing.

          Click Here...
          Gary Ruben
          CC - IA and SIM

          Comment


          • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

            Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View Post
            Thus, in most cases the density is <1 g/cc, meaning that crude oil floats in water.
            That was an interesting chart. I think the short answer goes like this:

            Oil is less dense than water, so 1 cubic cm of oil weighs less than 1 cubic cm of water. Therefore, the upward buoyancy force on the oil, which is equal to the weight of water displaced, is greater than the downward force of gravity on the oil, also known as the weight of the oil. This inequality of forces causes the oil to rise in the water.

            If the oil were denser than the water, the oil's weight (the downward force) would exceed the buoyancy force (the upward force), and the oil would sink in the water. (This is from the web.)

            With natural gas, Boyles Law and Charles Law is applied for calculating volume. I noticed a few years ago they started correcting the gasoline pumps for Charles Law. For higher pressures there is also a correction for supercompressability.
            Gary Ruben
            CC - IA and SIM

            Comment


            • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

              Latest estimates for the leak rate are as high as 25,000 barrels per day. This is crazy, going from 1,000 to 5,000 to 25,000. Why don't they put the CEO of BP in a mini-sub and have him pilot it into the hole to plug it up?

              Comment


              • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                Originally posted by Paul Beckwith View Post
                Latest estimates for the leak rate are as high as 25,000 barrels per day. This is crazy, going from 1,000 to 5,000 to 25,000. Why don't they put the CEO of BP in a mini-sub and have him pilot it into the hole to plug it up?
                BP is the oil company that will be hit, but it's huge ($5.6 Billion profit), it will survive to explode another well another day. Drilling won't stop because we can't stop civilization. And there's the relevance to this thread: we can't stop climate change either, for the very same reason.

                Just read this quote from this morning:

                Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, which represents energy companies, called the spill a "tragic incident" but said it should not affect offshore drilling.

                "Nothing has changed," he said. "When we get back to the politics of energy, oil and natural gas are essential to the economy and our way of life."

                I think there is a growing, gnawing awareness that we are in very bad times and we cannot save ourselves.
                Only the rushing is heard...
                Onward flies the bird.

                Comment


                • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                  Recent satellite images of the Gulf of Mexico...

                  http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/i...ate=2010-04-30

                  Comment


                  • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                    Originally posted by Paul Beckwith View Post
                    Recent satellite images of the Gulf of Mexico...

                    http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/i...ate=2010-04-30
                    I saw one posting this morning that said BP decided to save about a million dollars by not incorporating on this well an "automatic shutoff valve" otherwise known as a "blast valve". I have no idea as to the accuracy of that post, but it sounds like something of that nature would account for this.

                    Which only serves to point out the major flaw of unfettered capitalism: in the pursuit to reduce expenses and maximize profit, safety mechanisms will be left out, hoping that accidents never occur or that they occur after the people responsible have made their money and gotten out. Of course everyone knows accidents do happen and Murphy's Law will reign supreme, but the game of musical chairs is perhaps part of the thrill of the capitalist game. It's when the game starts affecting the future of the entire planet and mankind itself that maybe the rules have to change.

                    This is definitely a chance for Obama to make his mark. He will become very very involved in this now, especially since media is already saying this is becoming his Katrina. Get ready for even more government regulation, not just in banking and finance, but in every aspect of American life.
                    Only the rushing is heard...
                    Onward flies the bird.

                    Comment


                    • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                      Originally posted by Paul Beckwith View Post
                      Latest estimates for the leak rate are as high as 25,000 barrels per day. This is crazy, going from 1,000 to 5,000 to 25,000. Why don't they put the CEO of BP in a mini-sub and have him pilot it into the hole to plug it up?
                      I don't know who made the estimate but I doubt 25,000 barrels a day. I'd beleive it could be half that. Still, I don't know the pressure of the well or the size of the pipe.

                      Remember, I doubted 1,000 barrels because I thought it was too little and I doubt 25,000 because I think it's too high. Still, it could be.

                      I don't know why the BOP (blow out protector) didn't work.

                      I doubt this will change much. The U.S. needs oil.
                      Gary Ruben
                      CC - IA and SIM

                      Comment


                      • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                        Originally posted by Paul Bonham View Post
                        BP is the oil company that will be hit, but it's huge ($5.6 Billion profit), it will survive to explode another well another day. Drilling won't stop because we can't stop civilization. And there's the relevance to this thread: we can't stop climate change either, for the very same reason.
                        I'd image some of that is insured.

                        Blowouts happen. They will build more safeguards and redundancy but things still happen.
                        Gary Ruben
                        CC - IA and SIM

                        Comment


                        • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                          I don't blame oil companies for wanting to make money off of a populace that believes it can consume every last drop of oil on the planet and that somehow science will save us. I consider such a view about as likely as that God will save us, which is roughly 0%.

                          So in the spirit of helpfulness, here's a few things I do to put off that day of reckoning. Oh ya and to save/make a few bucks, too:

                          1) Grow your own food. I live in Ottawa, in an apartment at the moment, but my in-laws have a house and we share duties growing vegetables in their backyard. You can grow a lot of veggies in not a lot of space. The countdown is on before we move to a small farm and try to grow pretty much all of our own food so this is good practice. Trust me, it isn't rocket science. It's good exercise digging and turning soil, too. The only energy supply we use to do the farming is our muscles.

                          2) Walk or bike, don't take your car. Never owned a car. I'm not saying I will never own one, but I can say that if I did own one my entire adult life, I suspect my personal net worth at this point would be roughly $0 and I would have used countless barrels of oil zooming around to chess lessons over the years. Cars are expensive and decidedly "ungreen". You want BP to pay for oil spills? Don't buy their product, which means don't drive. ;-)

                          3) Wear a sweater in the house. Saves on energy needed to heat the place. We still heat the place, but generally only from late November to early March.

                          4) Don't have (so many) kids. I cannot think of one problem that faces humanity that is solved by sticking more people on this finite globe. Your DNA is not so special that it should necessarily survive to subsequent generations so if you are unsure of whether to have kids, just say NO. You can always adopt later. Welcome to the Evolutionary Dead End Club. ;-)

                          5) Recycle. Not only your own stuff but other people's as well. My wife and I get our exercise mostly through walking around the neighbourhood. At first we noticed a fair amount of money that just gets dropped or tossed (mostly pennies), so we stopped to pick it up. We've been living here for almost two years and have found just over $140 in cash in that time. For the last 18 months we also bring a plastic bag and collect all the empty beer cans/bottles that we find. That's another $200+ into our pockets. Ya, that's over 2000 cans and bottles. Makes the neighbourhood cleaner, safer (get the bottles before they're broken and no kid or dog is going to get cut), and most importantly, us richer.

                          6) There is free money everywhere if you aren't super lazy and do some thinking. Take shopping carts. Our local grocery store introduced ones with quarter slots on them a year ago. For the first few months we noticed that literally dozens of people just leave their carts where there car is. They are too lazy to walk < 50m to hook it up to another cart and get their quarter back. My wife and I are lazy, but not that lazy. So we used to make about 75 cents every grocery trip just from the carts.

                          Another example was when my wife sold her house. She decided it would look nicer if we spread wood chips on her garden. A couple of days later we were walking past some guys who were taking down someone's old tree and were chipping it up for transport. Turned out they were going out of town and dumping it on some farmers' field (with his permission, of course). I asked if they would drop it off on Penny's driveway and they were happy as it saved them some time. So they saved time (gas, too) and we got hundreds of dollars of free wood chips. We offered some to Penny's neighbours; some took them but others complained that some of the chips were too large and that they weren't (artificially) coloured. I guess nature's colour wasn't good enough.

                          7) Clothes dryers are crazy. People stop using clotheslines and switched to dryers. Then they didn't like the dryer smell so they buy dryer sheets to make the clothes smell like it did when they put it outside. You can buy a clothes rack (if you don't live in a house and therefore can't have a clothesline) for cheap and within a year it is definitely going to pay for itself. The sun is a free source of heat, and it's very green, I read.

                          8) Don't buy stuff you cannot afford. Buying stuff uses resources. If you can't afford it at this minute, then wait and see if you need it later. Maybe you won't. In that case, you made a green decision.
                          "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

                          Comment


                          • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                            Originally posted by Paul Bonham View Post
                            I saw one posting this morning that said BP decided to save about a million dollars by not incorporating on this well an "automatic shutoff valve" otherwise known as a "blast valve". I have no idea as to the accuracy of that post, but it sounds like something of that nature would account for this.

                            Which only serves to point out the major flaw of unfettered capitalism: in the pursuit to reduce expenses and maximize profit, safety mechanisms will be left out, hoping that accidents never occur or that they occur after the people responsible have made their money and gotten out. Of course everyone knows accidents do happen and Murphy's Law will reign supreme, but the game of musical chairs is perhaps part of the thrill of the capitalist game. It's when the game starts affecting the future of the entire planet and mankind itself that maybe the rules have to change.

                            This is definitely a chance for Obama to make his mark. He will become very very involved in this now, especially since media is already saying this is becoming his Katrina. Get ready for even more government regulation, not just in banking and finance, but in every aspect of American life.
                            Paul, great post. Obama only recently started to backpedal on his no off shore drilling policy, hopefully this will give him the resolve to ban it altogether.

                            Some will argue for a free market solution instead of an outright ban. May I suggest Oil companies profits first go into an environmental clean up fund, before any dividends or bonuses are paid. And how big should this fund be.......hmmmmm..... let's say........$ 1 trillion dollars. :D

                            And that's Canadian dollars, not that US$ toilet paper.:)

                            Comment


                            • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                              Obama is not a God. He can't produce oil from nothing. Since people don't want to change their lifestyles, since the entire Western economy is predicated on cheap oil, and since it appears the American's "War for Oil" hasn't yielded enough (yet) for its ravenous demand, what do you propose?

                              You can be assured that if Obama bans offshore drilling, and the price of gas spikes while the economy tanks, he won't have a second term.
                              Last edited by Tom O'Donnell; Saturday, 1st May, 2010, 10:11 AM.
                              "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

                              Comment


                              • Re: The One and Only Climate Change thread...

                                Originally posted by Tom O'Donnell View Post
                                Obama is not a God. He can't produce oil from nothing. Since people don't want to change their lifestyles, since the entire Western economy is predicated on cheap oil, and since it appears the American's "War for Oil" hasn't yielded enough (yet) for its ravenous demand, what do you propose?

                                You can be assured that if Obama bans offshore drilling, and the price of gas spikes while the economy tanks, he won't have a second term.
                                The answer is to evolve into an economy run on renewable & sustainable energy sources. It can be done, and should have been done decades ago. The people want it, but the financial and political elite, the rich who prosper from the status quo, don't want to change their lifestyles!

                                The answers are so obvious! Real democracy! :D

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