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 Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:10 pm
It has been a while since I've had a good in-depth conversation online, so here is a topic that most people have an opinion on, and one that affects me very directly, in many ways.
I live in Newfoundland, and one of our biggest industries is oil. Many companies now want to explore offshore oil fields that have long been left alone, both because of the risk associated with deep sea drilling, or with drilling in northern climates, and also because the technology was not available to consider such projects. There have also been proposals to drill in the Canadian Arctic. Drilling for oil and gas has been in the news a lot recently, with the big BP oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and the effect that will have on the environment in years to come is still unimaginable.
The other side to this is mining. Again I am personally affected, as I am currently employed by a company that does geological exploration with the goal of selling a project/property to a mining company. The project I'm currently involved with is located far north in Labrador. Like the territories, Labrador is not heavily populated, and the population that is here is focussed in the southern part of the province, and along the coast. Mines in northern Canada destroy large treks of land, displace animal populations, and pollute some of the purest environments you can find.
My question is this: do you think we should (as a global culture) allow these big companies to take over and in most cases destroy or severely damage extreme and unique environments?
This doesn't only apply to the far north. The far south is the same, and locations like rainforests have been threatened and lost to similar operations in the past. And there are also pros to these scenarios; for instance mining in some form is required to produce materials such as metals that are used for many things, and oil essentially runs out world.
So for a second part to the discussion: how do you think society should (or would have to) change in order to reduce or eliminate the need for mining and drilling in the 'untouched' corners of the world?
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:49 pm
Quote: My question is this: do you think we should (as a global culture) allow these big companies to take over and in most cases destroy or severely damage extreme and unique environments? No . They don't care. All they care is about money .Ever saw gasland the movie? If not I would. fracking does more harm then good. There is other ways like -Corn ethanol and other Ethanol. Having a electric car should be better as well. I think scientist around the world should come to together and I think of better ways. Since it does effect us all.They should share their ideas maybe what they do in their country.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:02 pm
MrsrachaelSnape Quote: My question is this: do you think we should (as a global culture) allow these big companies to take over and in most cases destroy or severely damage extreme and unique environments? No . They don't care. All they care is about money .Ever saw gasland the movie? If not I would. fracking does more harm then good. There is other ways like -Corn ethanol and other Ethanol. Having a electric car should be better as well. I think scientist around the world should come to together and I think of better ways. Since it does effect us all.They should share their ideas maybe what they do in their country.
Electric cars is definitely the way we should be moving. Even hybrids are good. Large pick-up trucks and vans shouldn't be commute-type vehicles.
I would like to see more research and implementation of hydrogen fuel. Iceland converted its entire bus fleet recently, so there should be opportunity to study the pros and cons of that source soon. I don't think corn based fuel is the way to go. Corn crops are not the most sustainable, and if we are growing that much corn, it would be better used to feed people who are lacking food, not rendered down to drive our cars.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:23 pm
GirlPuck MrsrachaelSnape Quote: My question is this: do you think we should (as a global culture) allow these big companies to take over and in most cases destroy or severely damage extreme and unique environments? No . They don't care. All they care is about money .Ever saw gasland the movie? If not I would. fracking does more harm then good. There is other ways like -Corn ethanol and other Ethanol. Having a electric car should be better as well. I think scientist around the world should come to together and I think of better ways. Since it does effect us all.They should share their ideas maybe what they do in their country.
Electric cars is definitely the way we should be moving. Even hybrids are good. Large pick-up trucks and vans shouldn't be commute-type vehicles.
I would like to see more research and implementation of hydrogen fuel. Iceland converted its entire bus fleet recently, so there should be opportunity to study the pros and cons of that source soon. I don't think corn based fuel is the way to go. Corn crops are not the most sustainable, and if we are growing that much corn, it would be better used to feed people who are lacking food, not rendered down to drive our cars.Corn ethanol isn't the best. I think Electric cars so far is the best idea.When people think of natural gas they think it's a great idea but that's because they don't know much about it. You probably don't get ads like we do here in the USA. http://www.anga.us/media-room/advertising. Those kind of ads are full of crap. Solar power ,wind power we have the tools but we don't use them very well.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:44 pm
MrsrachaelSnape GirlPuck MrsrachaelSnape Quote: My question is this: do you think we should (as a global culture) allow these big companies to take over and in most cases destroy or severely damage extreme and unique environments? No . They don't care. All they care is about money .Ever saw gasland the movie? If not I would. fracking does more harm then good. There is other ways like -Corn ethanol and other Ethanol. Having a electric car should be better as well. I think scientist around the world should come to together and I think of better ways. Since it does effect us all.They should share their ideas maybe what they do in their country.
Electric cars is definitely the way we should be moving. Even hybrids are good. Large pick-up trucks and vans shouldn't be commute-type vehicles.
I would like to see more research and implementation of hydrogen fuel. Iceland converted its entire bus fleet recently, so there should be opportunity to study the pros and cons of that source soon. I don't think corn based fuel is the way to go. Corn crops are not the most sustainable, and if we are growing that much corn, it would be better used to feed people who are lacking food, not rendered down to drive our cars.Corn ethanol isn't the best. I think Electric cars so far is the best idea.When people think of natural gas they think it's a great idea but that's because they don't know much about it. You probably don't get ads like we do here in the USA. http://www.anga.us/media-room/advertising. Those kind of ads are full of crap. Solar power ,wind power we have the tools but we don't use them very well.
With solar and wind power the problem is storage, but in recent years they have made a lot of progress with that, so hopefully there will be more use of those sources sometime in the future. I read an article on solar power a while back about a city in Spain I think. The project was based in one of those large crypt-type cemeteries, where they had placed solar panels on top of all the crypts. That is something that has been done in other places, and often what they will do is power the lights and buildings associated with the cemetery with the solar power. But this place had integrated the 'solar crypts' into the power grid of the city and they were generating enough power to support something like 40% of the city just from the cemetery. It makes a lot of sense, because cemeteries take up such large areas.
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