Monday, July 20, 2015
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
Offshore Drilling
Offshore Oil: Does it really matter to us?
There are many who say that offshore oil drilling is overall
advantageous in many respects; however, I’d like to point out a few important,
if not dominating, factors that make as negative an impact as they come. The
one subject I would like to elaborate on here is something as simple as an
everyday strain that the drilling so neglects to pick up: prices.
People
who are passionate about what they do, depending on what it is that they do,
say that they’re only true desire is to help people: people as in everyday,
suburban civilians. A policeman’s concern is keeping those people safe; a
politician’s concern is himself, of all. But the people who come up with the
ideas such as cars—an easier method of transportation—electricity—for everyday
use—and et cetera, are looking to benefit the whole in convenient ways. It
seems as though the idea of offshore drilling is to do just that . . . but is
it really benefitting society?
The
U.S. Department of Energy issued a report on offshore drilling last year, which
found that “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not
have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or
prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production
would not be expected to start before 2017.” It concluded, “Because oil prices
are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average
wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.” In the end, offshore drilling
does not lower gasoline prices. It washes in wealth for the big companies that
wouldn’t have originally been produced, but you or I wouldn’t see any
significant changes. Why is that? The wealth is transferred to the oil
companies, with which the assets are held; that’s beneficial to points that
don’t have anything to do with American consumers. It is not beneficial in the
way we would want it to be. According to an article written by Andrew J.
Hoffman and Thomas P. Lyon, “At heart, this is an issue that pits environmental
protection against financial gain. . . .” and this isn’t a new problem! Even if
it did affect prices at the pump, we have already have some major accidents:
accidents that cost a lot in terms of offshore oil spills. At one point,
Hoffman and Lyon also point out, “. . . over 400,000 gallons of oil were
spilled in the Mississippi river, forcing a closure of 100 miles of the river.
Of course, much bigger spills have occurred in American waters. In 1969, the
blowout of a Unocal rig off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled 3 million
gallons, and in 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons off the coast
of Alaska in 1989.” These accidents call for a lot of economic hardship.
So it not
only does not benefit the average consumer, but it has disadvantages aside from
that as well. And, back to the pricing issue, the only other two ways the
problem would be solved is that we either have a decreased need for oil—and in
the same aforementioned article, it is pointed out that “the world consumed 43
billion barrels of crude oil in 2006 . . .”, and those numbers haven’t gone
down significantly—or a great increase in supplies: and offshore wind isn’t
working towards either of those things. To us, it doesn’t make a difference.
In all,
offshore oil drilling isn’t beneficial in ways that would directly matter to
us.
Sources: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/ajhoff/pub_professional/The%20Simple%20Economics%20of%20Offshore.pdf
Marine Biology
A Marine
Biologist is someone who studies all types of sea creatures, and can choose to
specialize in studying large ocean animals, all the way down to microscopic
organisms everything from whales to plankton they eat, and everything else in
between can be studied. They basically study sea creatures (water
animals).
Marine
Biologist have investigated
Oceanography:
-properties of sea water
-island
information
Coral Reefs
Ecology
To get in
Marine Biology, you must be a high school graduate or have completed GED (the
minimum). The best colleges for a soon to be marine biologist are University of
Phoenix. At least have 4 or more years of college.
If you
decide to become a Marine biologist for your salary, you should expect an
Annual
Salary of:
-entry level
would make about 41,400 (19.9 per hour)
-some
experience would make about 53,300 (25,300 per hour)
-
experienced would make (upper 75% of salaries) 67,200 (32.31 per hour)
They range
from 31,000 – 71,000 annually.
Off-Shore Environmental Impacts
When looked at off-shore drilling it has some
advantages- that being said the disadvantages outweigh them. Economically,
off-shore drilling is good. It lowers the gas prices and diminishes our
reliance for foreign oil and even has little impact on the environment. But
socially, we don’t agree with off-shore drilling as we’ve seen the oil spills
and the marine life get affected. To find potential oil reserves, researchers
and companies send seismic waves into the ground to reveal a possible reserve.
The noise however disorientates whales and can lead to mass beaching. Not only
is off-shore drilling affecting the whales and their hearing but also at least
0.001 percent of oil is spilled into the ocean every time there is a drilling.
In one year there is around 300-500 spills. This affects the marine life and if
exposed to it regularly, can cause cancer to the animals. With all this
happening, fishing starts decreasing due to the pollution and disruption of the
marine life habitats. The disadvantages can continue as you look farther into
how the environment is being impacted. As humans, we hear about the BP Oil
Spill and all we think about is all the oil we’ve just lost but what we don’t
see is all the toxins that are now harming fishes and plants and life in the
ocean. The disruptions in the ocean can lead to displaced migration patterns,
inability to mate and communicate, and them vulnerable to prey and unable to
locate food.
The debate on off-shore drilling has been on and off
and as humans get more educated, the argument gets more advanced. The truth is,
there is pros and cons to everything in life and while the cons overrule the
pros in this situation there is still people who see it the other way. The only
for sure fix is to find a new way of getting oil or a new resource completely.
Nothing will be perfect but if we could just protect the whales from losing
their hearing and allow the fish to be able to mate and prey; maybe it’ll seem
perfect.
Work Cited:
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Welcome to the Blog
Welcome!
This experiment is a place for the 2015 Upward Bound summer session students to relay what they've learned about the outdoor sciences! The posts will be done by students as they explore the environment, plants and animals, and careers in natural science more broadly. We hope you enjoy!
Best,
Mrs. Crystal
This experiment is a place for the 2015 Upward Bound summer session students to relay what they've learned about the outdoor sciences! The posts will be done by students as they explore the environment, plants and animals, and careers in natural science more broadly. We hope you enjoy!
Best,
Mrs. Crystal
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)