Friday, April 11, 2008

Major Deal between Oil Co and Environmentalists!

Environmentalists and oil exploration company PXP agree to a significant deal to tap into oil reserves.

Article here.

PXP will stop drilling off Santa Barbara County in California decades early, will withdraw convert development proposals into parks for 200 acres of shoreline property and 3,700 acres inland in California, and will contribute millions of dollars to offset carbon dioxide emissions.

In exchange, teh environmentalsits groups Get Oil Out (GOO) and the Environmental Defense Center will support PXP's petition to slant drill from the Irnene offshore platforms to tap reserves of 200 million barrels of oil and 50 billion cubic feat of natural gas near the Tranquillon Ridge.

Win-Win.

Large Play of Oil.

4.3 Billion barrels of oil under Montana and South Dakota? (!)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

New Global Warming Talk by Al Gore.

Al Gore spoke again at the TED conference and presented some new information.
Video presented here.

I find his points often well made, even outright compelling. The evidence that he generally presents is certainly easy to understand and permit me to repeat, compelling. However, occasionally he makes a statement that sets of my skeptic alarms as a scientist. The one in this video being his example of the temperature of venus versus earth (and mercury). It bugged me because he said "It's not because Venus is closer to the Sun". I immediately thought "Whoa! Say what?!" and did some research. This article is what I found.

To give Mr. Gore much deserved credit, his overall point that carbon dioxide plays a huge part in Venus extreme temperatures is certainly accurate. But to quote from the article I just cited: "Interestingly, we can't simply blame a higher amount of carbon dioxide for Venus's fate" (emphasis mine). Venus history is complex and is almost certainly impacted by it's closer proximity to the sun, it's geology, etc., etc.

Now maybe I am being a bit of a pedant, but when it comes to presentations such as Mr. Gores, I am really sensitive to technical issues, particularly because he is using technical issues that I am often familiar with to explain the problem. I am afraid that the global warming naysayers/skpetics will find the technical weaknesses, and dismiss his entire point. Throwing babies out with the bathwater as it were.

Mr. Gores strength, in my opinion, is that he doesn't tend to fall victim to the hyperbole that other environmentalist groups might resort to. He doesn't really need to use hyperbole, his excellent points are out there in nature for everyone to see.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Torrance Homes Price Impacted by Refinery!

See Here.

The refinery is purchasing homes and may have to go a lot further up the block due to gasoline contamination. Buyer beware......