Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Oil and the environment: what should we do?

MSD · 04-23-2011, 04:31 PM

I'm a child of the '80s. I remember clearly in our lessons about the environment and the ozone hole in elementary school that when I had kids and they grew up to be my age (then) that they wouldn't be able to play outside, that it would be unsafe for anyone to go outside for more than a few minutes without sunscreen, and that skin cancer rates would increase by a factor of ten if we were lucky. Was it a bit heavy and fatalistic to teach that to second graders? maybe, but it stuck with me.

What changed was that the US and a few other countries took the initiative to ban CFCs to slow ozone depletion and the rest of the world followed suit. Now, almost 20 years later, not only have we halted ozone depletion, studies are coming out saying that within my lifetime, the ozone layer will be back to where it was before we realized that we were fucking everything up. If we're sufficiently motivated, we can end our oil dependency and curb the environmental impact of our oil use. There's nothing to debate; global warming is real and we are the cause. Extraction of petroleum from oil sands is the most disgusting thing we have done to our planet. Oil drilling is an unfortunate necessity but the lax safety measures observed when drilling today are unacceptable. Continued dependence of industry and day-to-day life on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Fission power is the best answer we have to our problems in the short term, but a massive revision of laws and regulations is necessary in light of what we've learned in the wake of the Fukushima disaster: that although modern nuclear power is inherently safer and less damaging than coal and oil power, when you trust private companies to balance profit against safety, safety loses out.

What we need is a concerted effort by all industrialized nations to move beyond fossil fuels. I have written to and directly spoken to my elected representatives to convey my belief that the US needs to once again lead the world in environmental change and establish a program with the scale, scope, and budget of a modern Manhattan Project to develop sustainable renewable and nonpolluting energy sources.

04-23-2011, 04:31 PM	#6 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	I'm a child of the '80s. I remember clearly in our lessons about the environment and the ozone hole in elementary school that when I had kids and they grew up to be my age (then) that they wouldn't be able to play outside, that it would be unsafe for anyone to go outside for more than a few minutes without sunscreen, and that skin cancer rates would increase by a factor of ten if we were lucky. Was it a bit heavy and fatalistic to teach that to second graders? maybe, but it stuck with me. What changed was that the US and a few other countries took the initiative to ban CFCs to slow ozone depletion and the rest of the world followed suit. Now, almost 20 years later, not only have we halted ozone depletion, studies are coming out saying that within my lifetime, the ozone layer will be back to where it was before we realized that we were fucking everything up. If we're sufficiently motivated, we can end our oil dependency and curb the environmental impact of our oil use. There's nothing to debate; global warming is real and we are the cause. Extraction of petroleum from oil sands is the most disgusting thing we have done to our planet. Oil drilling is an unfortunate necessity but the lax safety measures observed when drilling today are unacceptable. Continued dependence of industry and day-to-day life on fossil fuels is unsustainable. Fission power is the best answer we have to our problems in the short term, but a massive revision of laws and regulations is necessary in light of what we've learned in the wake of the Fukushima disaster: that although modern nuclear power is inherently safer and less damaging than coal and oil power, when you trust private companies to balance profit against safety, safety loses out. What we need is a concerted effort by all industrialized nations to move beyond fossil fuels. I have written to and directly spoken to my elected representatives to convey my belief that the US needs to once again lead the world in environmental change and establish a program with the scale, scope, and budget of a modern Manhattan Project to develop sustainable renewable and nonpolluting energy sources.