Titanic Post

From “The New Republic” July 9, 2008

This past Wednesday, President Bush called for ending a federal ban on offshore oil drilling, two days after John McCain flip-flopped to take the same position. The idea may or may not have merit in the long run, but what it won’t do is lower gas prices in the short term: The Department of Energy estimates that it would take more than 20 years for either production levels or prices to be affected by a repeal of the ban on offshore drilling. Because the amount of oil at stake is so tiny (about 19 billion barrels, equivalent to around seven months of global consumption), it won’t do much at all to ease jitters or help deflate a bubble in oil markets.

Look on the bright side, though: At least it wasn’t the worst idea Bush proposed in his energy speech. He also urged Congress to allow oil shale leasing on federal lands in the Green River basin in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. Unlike the offshore-drilling idea, oil shale development, at least in theory, promises a lot of oil: The Green River basin alone may hold 800 billion recoverable barrels.

Unfortunately, the idea has a number of problems. For one thing, nobody really knows how to do it:

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by Ken Nicholson

As you have probable guessed by now, both sides of the climate change issue have their own scientists. If you look closely, however, you will see that the skeptics among the scientists have affiliations or funding from large and powerful corporations that have a financial interest in supporting the idea that human driven global warning is a hoax. Those scientists who have found evidence supporting global warming and human causes tend to have more neutral sources of funding. (more…)

Grasslands, Gas and Government

By Nathan Newcomer
www.oteromesa.org

Vast desert grasslands, wilderness characteristics, abundant wildlife and a fresh water aquifer are colliding with the Bush-Cheney energy policy in New Mexico’s Otero Mesa. A debate that has been on going since 1997, when Harvey E. Yates Company (HEYCO) first found natural gas in Otero Mesa, has pitted ranchers, hunters, conservationists, and State authorities against the oil industry and Bush administration policies.

Nestled in south-central New Mexico, Otero Mesa stretches over 1.2 million acres, or roughly the same size as the State of Delaware. It is home to over 1,000 native wildlife species, including black-tailed prairie dogs, desert mule deer, mountain lions, golden and bald eagles, over 250 species of songbirds, and boasts the state’s healthiest and only genetically pure herd of pronghorn antelope. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Salt Basin aquifer, which originates in Otero Mesa and travels south into Texas, is the largest untapped fresh water resource remaining in New Mexico.

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BUSH REGIME AGREES NOT TO BLOW UP NEVADA DESERT

SALT LIKE TRIBUNE - Divine Strake was promised to blow a hole in the earth and create a mushroom cloud over the Nevada desert. Instead, it blew open old wounds for Utahns who had been promised Cold War atomic tests would be safe, and the hurt, betrayal and rage that poured out left the Pentagon with little choice but to announce it was scrappingt the test. Michelle Thomas spent the day in tears. “I’ve cried all day long. I just can’t yet grasp it,” said Thomas, a St. George Downwinder who opposed Divine Strake. She has had cancer and suffers an immune deficiency she blames on exposure to radiation. “I just felt such an overwhelming relief,” she said. “You just think, ‘Oh my gosh. We matter.’ ” The memories of Utahns helped fuel an unprecedented flood of resistance to the test, the ignition of 700 tons of explosives planned for the Nevada Test Site from which radiation spread from atomic tests into Utah and other states downwind. “This wasn’t run-of-the-mill public opposition. This was a heartfelt and broad-based public expression, so much so that it would have been impossible for anyone to neglect,” said Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. “I can’t remember the last time we had an issue that had this kind of unified public response. . . . Memories are very much alive and well.”

A majority of television scientists and newscasters do not believe that our globe is warming up and are generally doubtful that human activity could have anything to do with a potential climate change It is only among the unaffiliated liberal scientists that the cries of looming disaster are coming. These scientists generally work for universities or government agencies and are without exception funded by the government, and I don’t have to tell you what that means!

Real scientists, the ones approved by our present administration and hired by the corporations that make our country so successful, have found no evidence of climate change or a human component in our climate.

If you look closely, however, you will see that the skeptics among the scientists have affiliations or funding from large and powerful corporations that have a financial interest in supporting the idea that human driven global warning is a hoax. Those scientists that have found evidence supporting global warming and human causes tend to have more neutral sources of funding.

As a non-scientist, I think that, as a society, we should stop fouling our nest. Instead of arguing about whether or not there is a human cause of global warming or if there is a global warming, how about we stop polluting the air, the earth, and our drinking water? How about we stop wasting our resources and start appreciating the earth as our the only home we will ever have and which we should maintain and keep clean? It is not a corporate planet, it is the people’s planet. Our planet.