Climate change and related issues

[Defiance]

Hi all!

This thread is to discuss issues such as climate change, Japanese killing dolphins, etc. Politics is a more-than-welcome topic too .

Anyhow, I'm very happy that Arias is fucking out of the presidency. Hopefully the new government will be more friendly to the environment.

I just saw this excellent documentary called The Cove, if you have a chance, please watch it.



And this is me and my sister protesting against a mining project here in Costa Rica (i.e. the land that hates nature):

 

[Defiance]

On other environmental news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10123210.stm

*Sings Canadian hymn*

 

[sekhmet61]

What kind of mining project were you protesting against?

 

[Defiance]

Finally, a reply!

It was against Crucitas, the biggest mining project in Central America. I had the 'shame' poster because (1) I'm also Canadian and (2) the company is a Canadian one. (Incidentally, they're not allowed to do this mining projects in Canada, so they have to go outside. Let's go to Costa Rica, where there's no law, nor order!)

 

[sekhmet61]

Googled Crusitas, came up empty. What would they be mining for, and what kind of effect would it have on the (direct) environment?

 

[Defiance]

^ Perhaps if you google Crucitas you might find something .

Here's a nice pic:

 

[Blondino]

Didn't realise the Threshold forum harboured environmentalists.

Good on you sir!

Glad to hear that Canada are doing their bit to protect forests. Almost makes up for their complete lack of effort in trying to curb their emissions in every other sector (not to mention opening the doors to Shell to dig up their tar sands for oil).

 

[Defiance]

^ I'm not sure if you can say 'harbours', since only three people have posted here . But I do what I can.

Care to explain more about the Shell thing you mentioned?

 

[Blondino]

^ I'm not sure if you can say 'harbours', since only three people have posted here . But I do what I can.

Care to explain more about the Shell thing you mentioned?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/11/alberta-california-tar-sands-oil

Interesting to note that Canada scored last in a WWF poll of countries' environmental policies.

Still singing?

 

[Defiance]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/11/alberta-california-tar-sands-oil

Interesting to note that Canada scored last in a WWF poll of countries' environmental policies.

Still singing?

La-la-la-la-la… Wait a second….

That's horrible, even if the U.S. and China are the world's biggest polluters, Canada shouldn't be trying to catch up with them. As usual, politics and money are more important than… anything else.

Thanks for the link.

 

[sekhmet61]

Open pit digging for gold in an area that should remain a rainforest?
I'm not sure exactly what the results of this tar-oil-sand business would be, but I can imagine it's something along the same lines of what's happening here with our gas fields. Getting the gas out has caused several (minor) earthquakes in that region. And then there's getting the oil out of the sand/tar/whatever. Something tells me there would be a lot of chemicals involved.

 

[Blondino]

Besides the immediate environmental degradation that would be caused by tar sand excavation (and yes, the use of lots of detergents to separate the oil from the sand etc.), the main issue is that it is so energy intensive to extract oil in this way that the energy pay-off is about 1/1000th that of a land-based oil field, so the embedded emissions associated with this fuel will be a corresponding order of magnitude greater than normal oil. In fact, when the recession hit, Shell actually halted operations in the tar sands because it became more expensive to extract it than to pay customers to take the oil! It just shows how desperate oil companies are to get at it.

 

[Defiance]

^ Wow, it means a lot if even Shell did that. Then again, as my uncle said, cynical Mr Harper will take advantage of the oil catastrophe (spill is inaccurate, catastrophe, on the other hand, is quite precise) in the Gulf of Mexico and so try to move all the petrol companies to Canada.

On another note:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179531

Bad Nintendo, bad Nintendo.

 

[Blondino]

I think you're right, Defiance, especially since Obama has imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling!

On the topic of computers:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...pad-plant-hours-after-media-tour-1985075.html

 

[Defiance]

I think you're right, Defiance, especially since Obama has imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling!

On the topic of computers:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...pad-plant-hours-after-media-tour-1985075.html

Yes, it's the same politics (politicians) everywherelant some trees to look 'green', then destroy another part of the country.

About Foxconn, it's very sad, but comprehensible. With those wages, such horrendous working hours and poverty, how can one not kill oneself? I don't understand how more people haven't killed themselves, you go crazy by working so much.

If people there had better wages, and foreign companies better regulations; there wouldn't be so many Chinese in the world, since each wouldn't need thirty kids to help the family.

It's sad.

Foxconn has been forced to withdraw a letter that employees were asked to sign, promising that they would not try to take their own lives.

Now that's fucked up.

And actually there was a similar letter going around in my Uni, one saying something similar to 'you hereby renounce to your rights as a human being/employee' .

 

[Defiance]

It's a horrible catastrophe, the "leak" may continue till Augustus.

 

[Cello]

This is what I read on my favourite online comic's blog space:

Posted 28 May 2010 - 11:23 AM
If what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico sounds a bit familiar to those of us alive in the 70s, it should. It happened 31 years ago.

From MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow:

BP says it's waiting to see whether the top kill it started yesterday is working to plug the Deepwater Horizon. As of last night, BP said that what appears to be coming out of the Gulf of Mexico well now is drilling mud and not oil. It's a hopeful sign, anyway.

While we're all waiting and hoping and praying and getting madder and madder, consider a report from Deja Vu Land. In June 1979, an oil rig called the Ixtoc I blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. Amazingly, the sad and sorry tale of the Ixtoc oil disaster involves many of the same players and the same desperate techniques for stanching the oil gushing into the Gulf.

The oil companies keep talking about how technologically advanced they are, but what they have gotten technologically advanced at is drilling deeper. They haven't gotten any more advanced on how to deal with the risks attached to that. They haven't made any technological advances in the last 30 years when it comes to stopping a leak like this when it happens.

All they've gotten better at is making the risks worse, by putting these leaks further out of our reach. Wow, hey, congratulations. Now the thing you can't stop is a full mile underwater. That and making themselves the most profitable industry the universe has ever seen, and I am not exaggerating.

For those of you already checking out the Wikipedia article about the Ixtoc, please pay attention to the fact that it leaked into the ocean for 10 months before it was stopped. Already a month in to our present disaster, are we really going to let another 9 go by when all of this can be stopped by simply blowing up the well?

Considering that such an action would cost BP billions in unreachable oil, what do you think?

Here's the wiki link on the Ixtoc I oil spill:
Ixtoc I oil spill wiki

 

[Blondino]

Brings a tear to the eye :'(

 

[sekhmet61]

Deja vu indeed. Considering how deep this well is, probably more than 9-10 months.

 

[Defiance]

This is what I read on my favourite online comic's blog space:



Here's the wiki link on the Ixtoc I oil spill:
Ixtoc I oil spill wiki

Very sad, indeed. Obviously their billions are more important than…anything else.

And not only that, remember the one in Alaska some years ago.