Thursday, 1 October 2009
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Global Ice Survey
The TED talks take place in Oxford and are dedicated to 'ideas worth spreading'. They have an award winning website where recordings of their lectures are shown. Brilliant stuff - well worth a visit.
Here is one of the talks, by a chap called James Balog who has done time-lapse photography of melting glaciers as proof of climate change. This is breath-taking stuff...
...and extremely ironic that it is sponsored by BMW.
Here is one of the talks, by a chap called James Balog who has done time-lapse photography of melting glaciers as proof of climate change. This is breath-taking stuff...
...and extremely ironic that it is sponsored by BMW.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Forget Peak Oil
BP has discovered a large deposit of oil in the gulf of mexico. Link.
Put this into context. The new oil field contains around 3 billion barrels of oil - 500 million of which are extractable using contemporary technology. 500 million barrels of oil will last the US alone less than 1 year at current useage rates.
The new oil field is one of the deepest oil fields ever discovered which makes it very expensive to extract. The Statfjord oil field in the North Sea contained 5 billion barrels of oil. Thirty years after it was discovered it is almost entirely depleted. As are nearly fifty oil fields in the North Sea.
And, should we really be exploiting more carbon based fuels right now?
On the positive side, the small difference that this (and all the other discoveries of oil over the past 10 years) will make could be put to good use.
Here is a very exciting example of what we could be developing. Link.
There is hope!
Put this into context. The new oil field contains around 3 billion barrels of oil - 500 million of which are extractable using contemporary technology. 500 million barrels of oil will last the US alone less than 1 year at current useage rates.
The new oil field is one of the deepest oil fields ever discovered which makes it very expensive to extract. The Statfjord oil field in the North Sea contained 5 billion barrels of oil. Thirty years after it was discovered it is almost entirely depleted. As are nearly fifty oil fields in the North Sea.
And, should we really be exploiting more carbon based fuels right now?
On the positive side, the small difference that this (and all the other discoveries of oil over the past 10 years) will make could be put to good use.
Here is a very exciting example of what we could be developing. Link.
There is hope!
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