Slashdot Mirror
Fatal Explosion At Russian Hydroelectric Dam
stadium writes "An oil-filled transformer exploded at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant in Siberia, destroying three turbines and bringing down the ceiling of the turbine hall, which then violently flooded. The dam itself did not sustain any damage. It is unclear how many people were killed, but with 12 confirmed deaths and as many as 64 still missing (all presumed dead), this is a serious incident. The huge transformer had enough oil in it to produce a three-mile-long oil spill slowly moving downriver. BBC News reports with three separate videos. The dam produces a quarter of the total energy of RusHydro (whose stock thus took a steep dive at London Stock Exchange) and also feeds the world's largest aluminum smelter. The damages will take years to repair."
I'm not googling around for citations, but, George Washington Carver is credited with inventing plastic. (He was a black man in America, so he is generally forgotten - subject for another discussion.) The man worked with peanuts, IIRC, and maybe some corn, maybe some cotton. Oil is the primary ingredient for plastic, I guess it doesn't much matter whether it has laid underground for millenia or not. We could probably produce all the plastic that is essential for our modern civilization from renewable sources, but it would be expensive. As long as fossil fuels pumped out of the ground are cheaper than similar products from renewable sources, we will pump that oil.
If that doesn't actually answer your question, it's enough info to start googling with. ;^)
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br