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Drilling Under the Sea
prof_peabody writes "The IODP (Intergrated Ocean Drilling Program) is about to get rolling in a couple of days. If you live in one of these countries then your tax dollars have contributed to the construction of the giant drillship Chikyu, which was launched a little while back (project timeline). The American contigent website is loaded with info and obligatory acronyms. The first leg of the IODP will investigate how water flows through rock formations beneath the seafloor during an eight-week expedition this summer to the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of British Columbia. Some of you geeks with beards may remember the DSDP (Deep Sea Drilling Project) or the recently completed ODP (Ocean Drilling Program). The real advance in the new program that will cost well over a billion dollars is the IODP riser drill ship that 'will provide a way to drill into continental margins where oil and gas deposits can cause drilling safety concerns and into regions with thick sediment sections, fault zones, and unstable formations.' A good overview of the IODP can be found here, and the necessary references to Megalodon and none other than The Core."
How many calories a day would a Megalodon have needed, and where would it have obtained them? A predator that size seems hugely inefficient
This is why I will ask you to VOTE GREEN TODAY.
This kind of immense subsidy of the destructive Oil-based economy must end.
The Green Party proposes a (modest IMHO) $0.10 per L (phased-in over 3yrs(again, very modest) to help ease canada away from an Oil-based economy to something more sustainable. Wind. Solar. Other(?) --- OR --- keep paying to subsidise the oil industry in THIS and MANY other ways... for instance, Hibernia and TerraNova were financed by the feds, how much do we spend a year on roads, hospitals treating road injuries, insurance, insurance litigation, air pollutin, sprawl, obesity, mining etc etc etc the auto industry and its partner oil industry require that we spend billions of dollars a year (in canada alon) of public money -- not to mention what you, the citizen spends on this behaviour -- for what? ultra convenient personal transport? un-f-ing real.
The Oil/Auto Industries running our culture to make irresponsible/unsustainable/expensive/stupid decisions must end.
The first step: Making people recognize the unbelievable REAL costs of these two industries. Support the Greens, vote to RAISE gas prices.