After five years of living in the lunatic asylum we call Bush's America, nothing should surprise me anymore. After all, we have people voting for a party that is hell-bent on:
- Shipping good jobs overseas
- Keeping us in a perpetutal war
- Destroying the institutions that have made the middle class
- Destroying our public lands
- Shredding the Kyoto accords
- Giving the gas and oil companies carte blanche
And that isn't even an exhaustive list. No matter, no one has time to catalog
all of the crimes the GOP and their corporate benefactors are foisting on the world. After all, the list is so long, nothing should surprise me. But even now, I can still be amazed. Witness those fun-loving lads in the oil industry who have a new scheme cooking for you and me.
DOHA, Qatar--Tony Espie, storage technology manager for BP Exploration, believes one of the primary tools for solving global warming lies beneath our feet.
Storing carbon dioxide in underground caves that once held oil and gas is shaping up to be one of the more promising techniques for reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that get pumped into the atmosphere, he said during a presentation at the International Technology Petroleum Conference taking place here this week.
Yes, you read that correctly. The oil companies have a plan to solve global warming. They are going to put the CO2 emissions back underground. Imagine my amazement at this plan!
First, I am amazed that they are virtually admitting that there is global warming. I thought for sure that Whiskey George told us the science says otherwise.
Second, this sounds like we're messing with something that's going to come back and bite us. But then again, we're "eco-wackos" according to the Greed and Oil Party. So you say, "Calee4, yer overreacting here. Get a grip man, the oil companies are looking out for us."
Trials for the concept are already under way in Algeria and Canada. Commercial development could begin within the next five years. Ideally, storage facilities would keep carbon dioxide underground for at least 1,000 years and hopefully 10,000 or more.
Uh oh, that sounds kinda ominous there. So they're already doing this? Man, I hope nothing can go wrong. It's just C02, right? The stuff that's in your Perrier water, right?
Significant risks, of course, exist. A rupture in an underground cavern can lead to a bubble of carbon dioxide. If people were to walk through the bubble, they would probably die of suffocation, Espie said. That problem, however, is fairly localized. Sensors placed in the area can provide some warning.
A large earthquake could also create a fault that would let carbon dioxide escape over a broader area. "In that case, you'd probably have to take the CO2 out," he said.
Well, I'm glad I don't have to worry about earthquakes... oh wait, I forgot, I live in California. Never mind.
If the gas escaped into a water supply, the result would be carbonated water, but health officials would be concerned about any deleterious chemical reactions.
Imagine that, Perrier coming out of your tap. What will they think of next?
The biggest roadblock ultimately could be public acceptance of the idea. To that end, he suggested the industry share the data of these projects.
Administrative bodies also need to be created. Companies don't last 1,000 years, he said.
So the public gets a say in this? How democratic of them.
Drink up!