Discussion: Global Warming and Other Environmental Issues

[Kelly]

That is what I was afraid of....

 

[Carcharodon]

I still haven't decided whether I've reversed my position on off-shore drilling. I'm certainly not as pro-drilling as I was before, that's for certain. This is a ****ing nightmare.

 

[Paradoxium]

Kevin Costner’s Oil Separating Centrifuge Will Save The Gulf Of Mexico

 

[Carcharodon]

I would forgive him for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The movie itself was pretty good. He wasn't.

Honestly though, that's awesome. Here's hoping it isn't too little too late.

 

[Marx]

According to the AP, the larger majority of oil from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could linger below the surface for months, or even years.

Good grief...

 

[Figs]

If You Spill It, They Will Come: Costner, Cameron, Redford Solve the Gulf Oil Catastrophe?

If this were a movie, it would be too unbelievable. Since it's real life, well…it's even more unbelievable.
Ready for this one? We may have Kevin Costner to thank for solving the Gulf Coast's oil spill crisis. Of course, Mr. Dances With Wolves isn't working alone. James Cameron and Robert Redford are also lending some much needed (albeit curiously qualified) hands to the cause…
Here's the deal: Earlier this month, Costner unveiled an oil-cleaning device to which he has devoted 15 years and $24 million to a mightily impressed and, let's be honest, somewhat flabbergasted, public. Costner came up with the device, which basically filters oil out of water—novel idea, huh?—while filming Waterworld.
(He purchased the technology, first developed by the Department of Energy after the disastrous Exxon Valdez spill.)
This week, since it has no other ideas, BP OK'd preliminary testing on "the Costner solution." The company and the U.S. Coast Guard will test six of the oil separators next week.
"It's not anymore about talk," Costner said this month while unveiling the project his team of scientists have spent the better part of two decades finessing. "It's about doing the walk, and that phrase was probably invented down here."
And lest you think Costner is just the bizarrely-chosen face of this project, think again.
'Waterworld' Solution to Gulf Oil Slick?


"Yes, Kevin is a star, but he took his stardom and wrote all the checks for this project out of his own pocket," business partner and Louisiana attorney John Houghtaling told the Los Angeles Times .
Still confused? You're in good company. Well, company.
"It certainly is an odd thing to see a 'Kevin Costner' and a 'centrifugal oil separator' together in a place like the Gulf of Mexico," Stephen Baldwin, who himself is making a documentary about the oil spill, told the paper.
Yeah, almost as odd as seeing a "Stephen Baldwin" and a "documentary about the oil spill" together in one place. His funding alone boggles the mind .
"But, hey, some of the best ideas sometimes come from the strangest places."
Like, say, the biggest movie of all time?
Cameron has also offered up the use of his underwater vessels should they prove helpful in cleaning up the environmental disaster, while Redford has pitched in to help, too, appearing in a commercial for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is hoping to use the horrific disaster as a wake-up call for the government to get real on finding and using clean energy sources.

Pretty interesting and out of left field.

 

[Majic Walrus]

Is this the turn your piss into drinkable fluid thing, that thing was pretty cool.

 

[Figs]

Hahaha! Maybe that was where it all started.

 

[Marx]

PRESIDENT OBAMA CREATES BIPARTISAN COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE GULF OIL SPILL
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/21/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

 

[Spidey-Bat]

I find him to be a very boring actor in all of his movies (except Thirteen Days where his overdone, forced Boston accent was annoying), but it's pretty cool he's done this.

 

[Marx]

BP SAYS THAT IT WILL CONTINUE TO USE CONTROVERSIAL DISPERSANT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/22/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1

 

[Marx]

BP's 'top kill' method is officially underway.

 

[Marx]

CNN LIVE STREAM OF GULF OIL LEAK
http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=stream3&hpt=T1

 

[VampElvis]

I still don't understand why they aren't going to be using the mats made from hair to soak the oil out of the marshlands. Even if it isn't the most effective it's recycling, I'd think it must be "green", and almost everyone in the country could contribute to the effort all of which I'd think would be something of an emotional win.

 

[Marx]

Every report I've seen has said that the marshes are pretty much destroyed. (And the only way to get rid of all the oil is to burn them. )

 

[Alex The Great]

I'm a little worried about hurricane season. Any oil still in the gulf would be carried right into New Orleans....Right?

That's assuming that a Hurricane comes in Early-Mid June and goes right through the Gulf and Into New Orleans...It could go into Florida for all we know


At least, that is possible, right?

 

[Kelly]

I'm a little worried about hurricane season. Any oil still in the gulf would be carried right into New Orleans....Right?

That's assuming that a Hurricane comes in Early-Mid June and goes right through the Gulf and Into New Orleans...It could go into Florida for all we know


At least, that is possible, right?

During Hurricane season it would/could be taken anywhere from Mexico to Florida. BUT, a hurricane could also absorb a lot of the oil as well and break it up.....I'm not sure of the implications in that scenario. The thing a hurricane could do is hinder the work in trying to plug the damn thing.

 

[Marx]

Forgive my ignorance on this...if a hurricane would pick up oil in its path...wouldn't it then rain oil?

 

[Kelly]

Well, it would go through a major piece of storm, before dropping as rain. I do not think it would be raining oil per say, as in, wow that rain feels oily, or smells oil, etc.

The problem with the oil, would come from the surge, not the rain.

It also depends on the path of the storm, depending on the path a hurricane could actually push the oil away from the coast and into open water...

 

[Marx]

The surge would definitely be an issue...I would just think that there would be some level of oil in the rain.

 

[Kelly]

The surge would definitely be an issue...I would just think that there would be some level of oil in the rain.

The rain doesn't taste salty....yet the Gulf is salt water...

 

[Marx]

The rain doesn't taste salty....yet the Gulf is salt water...

I see your point. I just had an 'acid rain' picture in my head with all of that oil.

 

[Kelly]

I see your point. I just had an 'acid rain' picture in my head with all of that oil.

Well, it has to go through a huge, and high storm cloud that spins like the rinse cycle....before it falls as rain.

The surge will be a ***** if it takes a West track, which would (I think, I could be a little off on my directions) track like Katrina, then New Orleans is screwed....if it takes a Southeastern track, then it would push the oil out into open water and that would be a positive.

 

[Marx]

Yeah, but if it pushes the oil into open water...its bound to get caught up in a current eventually.

 

[Kelly]

Yeah, but if it pushes the oil into open water...its bound to get caught up in a current eventually.

If it is pushed out to open water it would hit the Gulf Stream, which moves into the North Atlantic Drift and open waters of the Atlantic....which is what happens to most Hurricanes....