Arctic oil drilling soon to become reality

[auroraglacialis]

Shell Arctic oil spill response plan for Chukchi Sea approved - latimes.com

The Obama administration on Friday approved Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc.'s plan for responding to an accident should it occur in the Chukchi Sea. The company hopes to begin exploratory drilling there, 70 miles off the northwest coast of Alaska, in June.
...
The plan calls for a fleet of oil-spill response vessels to be on hand at all times, along with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. It also calls for a specially designed capping and containment system, still under construction and testing, that would be able to contain and store an accidental release of up to 80,000 barrels a day.
...
Conservationists say the plan, as approved, provides no real guarantee that an oil spill would not devastate one of the world’s most fragile environments, home to polar bears, walruses, whales and thousands of migrating birds.

“This is a premature decision,” Marilyn Heiman, director of the U.S. Arctic program for the Pew Environment Group, said in an email to the Los Angeles Times.

She said the plan should, but doesn’t, include an adequate plan for protecting the shoreline and feeding areas for migrating bowhead whales and other species in the event of a spill.

Don’t be fooled by Shell’s Arctic ads - Greenwashing - Greenpeace USA Blog

[Human No More]

Maybe the world should start paying real attention to alternatives and to getting overpopulation under control, or this is to be expected.

[Marvellous Chester]

Overpopulation isn't goign to be fixed until the fix is forced upon people sadly. Human's selfish desires to have lots of children is more important than the Earth it would seem

[Iluvrien]

Interesting articles Aurora, if unsurprising. I like the comment in the Time article saying that the Arctic fields should be opened up to "reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil" rather than, for example, just plain reducing the nation's (world's) reliance on oil.

Not sure overpopulation can be entirely put down to selfishness, though. I had a suspicion (and an hour of stats analysis with the World Factbook seems to agree with me) that the countries that have the largest population growth (in terms of percentage of population) are generally a) the poorest (GDP per capita) and b) have the highest infant mortality rates. Selfishness may well be a factor, but I wouldn't bet on it being either the or even one of the major ones.

[Moco Loco]

By all means, somebody force it on them Honestly I hope for as much every time I think about it.

[Niri Te]

Let me see if I understand what is going on here. Obama KILLS the pipeline that would bring down Canadian oil to US refineries, but then within a month, tells Mexican Shell that they can drill in the sea off the north west coast of Alaska in some of the ROUGHEST seas off ANY U.S. coast?
Niri Te

[auroraglacialis]

Originally Posted by Niri Te

Let me see if I understand what is going on here. Obama KILLS the pipeline that would bring down Canadian oil to US refineries, but then within a month, tells Mexican Shell that they can drill in the sea off the north west coast of Alaska in some of the ROUGHEST seas off ANY U.S. coast?

Of course. Because in the latter case, he will not have to face opposition from people actually sitting on the land they want to use. Also the Arctic is far away enough for people to not really care so much. Like North Africa....

Originally Posted by Iluvrien

I like the comment in the Time article saying that the Arctic fields should be opened up to "reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil" rather than, for example, just plain reducing the nation's (world's) reliance on oil.

Yes, thats the pattern. All that charades about "ethical oil" (Canadian Tar Sands) and "biofuels" and now Arctic oil and Alaskan coal - this is all meant to somehow ensure that the US remains the dominant power on the planet in the years to come, even if oil in North Africa runs out and China needs more coal every year. None of this is focussed on consuming less, it is all just about consuming more - but from a different source.

Not sure overpopulation can be entirely put down to selfishness, though.

No it cannot. There are powerful mechanisms at work there but to put the blame on mothers is utterly wrong. Two main factors are rather well known. One is empowerment of women. That can have any form - economic independence, womens rights,... and is helped by availability and acceptance of contraceptions. The other is local independence. This means that farmers should have their own land and seeds, that fishermen should have primary fishing rights in their waters and hunters have access to theit hunting grounds and are free of poaching. If people are living with the land they inhabit and have their own means of subsistence, they do usually not have a lot of population growth (given the first point about women). This is because if a farmer has no land of his own and has to work for a landlord, or if he has to become a factory worker or any other worker that has not his own means of production, then human labour becomes his main commodity - he has to sell his labour to make it through the day. If the pay for tha labour then is restricted so much that he barely can make it and that he cannot afford to get sick or old, he will see only one chance to help with that - have plenty of kids that can support him and his family by doing the same thing - working for money. The only way to counteract this if one wants to keep this sort of system (which basically is capitalism - some people own the tools and other people are paid to use them to the benefit of the owner), is to install health insurance and pension plans that work for everyone reliably.

I think the high infant mortality rates are basically a correlation with poverty not a causation. Poor people with a definition of poverty as above - defined by the lack of independent means of production or subsistence - will have both - higher birth rates and more child mortality. The first of it I described above, the second is a result of malnutrition, lack of adequate living conditions and health.