Recently Berlzebub put in a lot of time trying to give a hand to P-Momma, a victim of Lupus. One of the tools he used was a chipin, a little tool that made it easier to collect and report on fund raising goals.
His results were impressive (particularly after a mention on PZ's site!). He raised thousands of dollars for her to be able to put UV filters on her windows so she could actually leave her room and live in her house.
Recently, and simultaneously, a group in Wyoming who I have been involved with, decided they needed help. The groups name is Stop Drilling - Save the Bridger-Teton National forest. They are a grassroots effort to try to prevent the oil and gas industry from digging up the BT national forest.
If you have ever been to this part of Wyoming, you know it is one of the most spectacular areas we have in the United States. There are pictures all over the web of this area of the country. To think that we continue to dig up our world for fuel that will continue to hurt our climate is just the height of stupidity.
Yes, we need gas. Yes, we need energy. But after having spent 3 trillion dollars in Iraq (if we get out now), isn't it time that we look for another way? Limiting oil and gas exploration will require these companies to look for alternative incomes. For example BP an oil company, is becoming heavily invested in solar. Chevron is investing in geothermal. Good! The more difficult it is for them to drill, the more they will have to look for alternative incomes. Why should we plunder our the most beautiful areas of our country when we can spend our efforts learning how to get energy from that gigantic ball of fire in the sky?
What do Berlzebub's efforts have to do with gas drilling? Well, his donation tool led me to this web application, sproutbuilder, which I have not seen before. It looked like a very flexible and powerful tool. So I made a sprout.
This is an introduction to the problem. SDSBT's website has far more information. Please join me in helping with their efforts. As you can imagine its a HUGE battle stacked heavily against them. Please donate and seed the sprout to spread the word.
Thanks..
-Tech
Reimagined and Revamped. Fighting the spread of nonsense often feels like a Sisyphean task. However, the joy is in making the information available, not the hope of conversion.
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4 comments:
Do your homework!
Chevron does geothermal only to further its oil and gas biz. It's done for countries like Indonesia and the Phillippines in exchange for pieces of the local fossil fuel supply. None of this geothermal is in the U.S.
And most of its geothermal generation capability was acquired in 2005 when Chevon bought out Unocal, which had developed sites in Indonesia and the Phillippines.
eh?
How do any of your assertions change any of the things i was saying? What homework are you suggesting I need to do?
While I don't claim to know alterior motives by the oil industry, I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories without data.
For example, while it may be true that Chevron made a deal to buy geothermal in order to gain access to oil reserves, it seems unlikely in lieu of the fact that phillipines have scare oil resources and Indonesia recently became a net oil importer.
It doesnt matter that none of the geothermal is in the US, thats completely besides the point which is besides having a population that simply uses less gas, we are also better off if these huge companies can be coerced into renewables by making it harder to get at oil. It doesnt matter if its the US or not. Actions like these will help coerce oil companies to start up some real geothermal, solar thermal or other good power generation technologies in this country.
I don't know why it matters how chevron got the geothermal. I'm sure they paid a pretty penny for it, geothermal stations aren't free. Buying up companies and technologies is a very normal and healthy way of gaining marketshare and revenues. Why develop when you can buy?
saying that you want oil companies to research, produce, and distribute different forms of energy collection and whatnot is like saying you want the RIAA in charge of the MP3 standard, and distribution of all MP3 files.
They won't make as much money off anything else. supply and demand economics and sadly fossil fuels are the most cost effective form of energy on the planet, right now.
Expect to see smaller, independent companies doing local energy production for communities. similar to what you're seeing with Fixed Wifi for certain areas of california.
If they're in it for only profit, expect to see them swallowed as soon as they get the infrastructure built. (which i think would be sad).
They won't make as much money off anything else. supply and demand economics and sadly fossil fuels are the most cost effective form of energy on the planet, right now.
Thats totally true. And would continue to be except for two things, eventually we will start running out (they leave about 30% in the ground because that same cost efficiency dissipates) and if we don't let them drill up anywhere we want (the main crux of this whole post), they MUST find an alternative to continue to make money. It wont be overnight by any means, but at some point people will start buying electric cars and charging them at work (becuase industrial power rates are FAR lower than residential. In fact, this is a benefit that companies could provide to attract skilled labor.
by limiting an oil companies resources, they will have to find alternatives. By letting them run roughshod where ever they please, there is no reason to expect different behavior out of them.
I do expect to see smaller independant companies pushing alternative energy ahead. And then I expect big corporations to buy them up as the technologies get hammered out. All corporations, large or small, are in it for the money.