**official** Environmentalists Do The Dumbest Things Thread

[Balloon guy 158]

And my brother was right

[brvheart 1,752]

I think you're envisioning a small lake or something. At it's deepest it's a quarter of a mile deep, and the over all aquifer is about the size of california. Here, let me give you a visual aid..The blue line is the existing pipeline that while it does pass over part of the aquifer, it is a shallow and deep portion of it. Here's a topographical map of the aquifer, notice that the deepest part of it is right where the proposed pipeline would cross itI know you were being glib about Nebraska, but the aquifer provides water for several state's irrigation, not just Nebraska, which is an agricultural concern for the country. and, in general the nation's long term security interests are tied into having abundant clean fresh water.

I don't understand why deep would have anything to do with anything. If there was an oil spill in the current pipeline over the aquifer, then the oil could freely spread across the entire aquifer anyway. Correct? Also, oil floats. So who cares if it's a deep or shallow part? They could just pump the water out from the bottom. ps. I'm not from a wimpy state that requires irrigation, so I have zero knowledge of this situation. I'm just asking questions.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I don't understand why deep would have anything to do with anything. If there was an oil spill in the current pipeline over the aquifer, then the oil could freely spread across the entire aquifer anyway. Correct? Also, oil floats. So who cares if it's a deep or shallow part? They could just pump the water out from the bottom. ps. I'm not from a wimpy state that requires irrigation, so I have zero knowledge of this situation. I'm just asking questions.

Well, I meant that the area in eastern nebraska was deep underground and not over sandy land, making it more difficult for the oil to seep down into the water. The proposed pipeline goes over the sand hills, and the aquifer is much closer to the surface ( as I understand it). Re: just pumping water from the bottom and oil spreading along the surface.. I have no idea.

[iZuma 764]

couldn't they just, you know, put some trash bags under it or something?

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Actually, I ended up learning something from this page. Thanks, D.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

For the record, I have no idea how dangerous the pipeline would actually be for the aquifer, as I said there are a lot of competing opinions about it. I was just letting BG know why it got blocked was probably not because of the pumping/burning of the oil, but the dangers of transporting it.

[AmScray 355]

It's a narrative-versus-fact debate, or, an 'improbable-scenario-versus-most-likely-reality' debate. Those are always counter-productive. Idealists draft up some narrative, present some scenario to retard progress. There's always a tragic outlier they can reference as a 'visual model' in support of their ideologically driven position, confounding the discussion. Pretty ****ing obnoxious.The Canada pipeine is clearly the first step in our confiscating Canadian oil and pumping it into our country for our use. Also, pipes flow both ways. We could use it to pump a giant cloud of poisonous gas into Canada, softening them up before invasion time. We cannot miss this opportunity.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Stupid question: why don't we just build a new refinery in North Dakota instead of building a pipe down to Texas?

[The Ocho 970]

Stupid question: why don't we just build a new refinery in North Dakota instead of building a pipe down to Texas?

I am pretty sure I have heard it's much more expensive to build a refinery than transport the oil. Also, I think adding refineries is a large environmental impact, and there may ever be government regulations against doing so right now.**No facts or source for any of the above.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

I am pretty sure I have heard it's much more expensive to build a refinery than transport the oil.

I guess that MUST be true, otherwise the whole conversation would be moot. But I have also heard that the number of refineries is a bottleneck in our ability to provide more fuel for our country, and building a refinery would probably create jobs if one's looking for government stimulus.So, I dunno.

[Balloon guy 158]

Duh, we need to have a large body of water to dump the toxic waste in...wait...Nebraska has a large underwater body of water....It sure seems to me that building a new refinery would make sense, in Canada in fact. Why wouldn't they want to get the whole budget instead of just the mining fees?

[AmScray 355]

The BP refinery about 30 minutes from me in Whiting is retrofitting to accept delivery of oil sands from Canada shipped in via Lake Michigan.STOP IT FROM HAPPENING!WHAT IF THE BARGE SINKS!IT WILL DESTROY LAKE MICHIGAN!BAN PLASTIC BAGS!

[vbnautilus 48]

Or we could just be less pretentious about our oil and stop demanding that it be so refined.

[Balloon guy 158]

Another green energy company fails after getting over $100 million tax dollars.I guess we now know why the stimulus package failed, they only tried to stimulate companies with no chance of success.

[hblask 1]

Another green energy company fails after getting over $100 million tax dollars.I guess we now know why the stimulus package failed, they only tried to stimulate companies with no chance of success.

And just days after Obama mentioned it in the SOTU as another success. You'd think they might've considered asking the company how they were doing before bringing it up.

[CaneBrain 95]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/06/shrin...rope/?hpt=hp_c1climate change sucks for Europe!

[brvheart 1,752]

Stupid question: why don't we just build a new refinery in North Dakota instead of building a pipe down to Texas?

I am pretty sure I have heard it's much more expensive to build a refinery than transport the oil. Also, I think adding refineries is a large environmental impact, and there may ever be government regulations against doing so right now.**No facts or source for any of the above.

Also there hasn't been a new refinery built since 1976, since the regulations are so overwhelming. They aren't that expensive. There is a new one opening in Arizona this year and it was 3 billion. (Or 1.9 Dallas Cowboy stadiums)

[akoff 0]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/06/shrin...rope/?hpt=hp_c1climate change sucks for Europe!

the key word in the headline that jumped at me was "may" and in the 2nd paragraph most snow in 50 years...with the link to Italy saying they haven't had this much snow SINCE the 50's. Concrete evidence that this winter is just as cold and snowy as it was in 1950 before we had global warming...nice try. you should get the hockey stick chart back out it had more meaning - wait - i forgot that was a fraud as well.

[Balloon guy 158]

Uh oh...looks like there are problems in the GW front....Ice not meltingMountians not dying.But but but..it was a mild winter everywhere except Alaska....

[donk4life 34]

Didn't know the Himalayas represented the GLOBAL climate.

[vbnautilus 48]

Uh oh...looks like there are problems in the GW front....Ice not meltingMountians not dying.But but but..it was a mild winter everywhere except Alaska....

Yeah, great news. From the article: If the amount of ice lost between 2003 and 2010 covered the United States, the whole country would be under one-and-a-half feet of water, or it'd fill Lake Erie eight times, researchers say. Ocean levels worldwide are rising about six hundredths of an inch per year, according to researcher John Wahr.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Didn't know the Himalayas represented the GLOBAL climate.

It's extremely good news actually. The Himalayas glacial melting was one of the things I am most frightened of w/r/t global warming because south asia's primary water source is glacial run off, and if india dries up in 20 years, that would have serious world wide implications.

[AmScray 355]

if india dries up in 20 years, that would have serious world wide implications.

Desalination would become a massive industry in short order, with white people footing the bill (and highly connected persons getting the contracts via shell companies owned by cousins and wives), not too dissimilar from the mind boggling amount of humanitarian money we incinerate in Africa every year.

[vbnautilus 48]

Well it seems the tables have been turned. Someone released a whole bunch of private documents from the Heartland Institute, one the major anti-climate-change organizations. Story here:http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastro...te-change-spin/Great quote from one of the documents: Principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective. To counter this we are considering launching an effort to develop alternative materials for K-12 classrooms. We are pursuing a proposal from Dr. David Wojick to produce a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools. Dr. Wojick is a consultant with the office of Scientific and Technical Information at the U.S. Department of Energy in the area of information and communication science. His effort effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain – two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.Nice.

[iZuma 764]

I AIN'T COME FROM NO DAMN MONKEY