abstract engineer blogspot

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, 21 June 2010

Leaking Oil

Posted on 07:25 by hony
TAE posits the question: How much oil must leak into the ocean before the entire world's ocean ecosystems collapse? As in, just how much oil can the world soak up? As in, if the ocean were a huge bowl of water, and the oil were food coloring...how many drops of food coloring would we need to add before the ocean was an incurably, irrevocably stained mire?

My guess is quite a bit. Much of the oil will wash up on shores and stay there, or sink to the bottom and be slowly reclaimed by bacteria.

But what if...just what if...this is the beginning of the end for our global ecosystem? What if aliens will visit 2,000 years in the future and find a lifeless, oily tarball of a planet, and using their vast supercomputers they back-calculate and determine that the moment life on Earth was doomed was April 20, 2010 by the human calendar?

The thought that failure to produce a successful relief well might mean the Deepwater Horizon well might just spew oil into the oceans for the next ten years is a chilling thought.


_
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • 5 Years
    Five years ago tomorrow I started this blog. I was working at a job I didn't particularly like nor found mentally fulfilling, and the bl...
  • This Tesla Love-Fest Has Got To End
    Over at The Oatmeal, a popular online comic, there's a sprawling, gushing graphic about Nikola Tesla. Inside it, Edison is referred to ...
  • I promise to stop writing about STEM soon. Just not yet.
    Imagine you are a tech company that makes widgets. You've gotten a factory in China to make the parts for the widgets for a tiny amount....
  • Evolutionary Politics
    If President Obama is reelected I see a clear example of specialization-elimination in effect here. Let's say each of the GOP primary ca...
  • In which I criticize the antiquated feelings of Ye Olde Mechanikal Engineer
    In a Lawrence Journal World blog, Dave Klamet writes about changing trends in education, especially the increasing competitiveness of non-A...
  • The Worst Science Idea of 2010 - Genspace Now Open For Disaster
    Here's the idea : Let's build a lab where anyone, literally anyone, can come and tinker with microorganisms. Better yet, let's m...
  • A Better Way To Cut College Costs
    End University athletics. _
  • Driverless Cars, Ctd
    The Atlantic pays Alexis Madrigal a lot of money to basically outline what I outlined for free TWO YEARS ago. This isn't a knock on Ma...
  • Links
    I've been terribly swamped with work the last week, and when I wasn't working, I was loudly defending gun rights. Subsequently, the ...
  • Staying abreast of technology
    TAE thinks that it is a good idea to embrace every new technology that emerges, be it Twitter, Facebook, mp3s, tablet PCs, and now the new M...

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (41)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (7)
    • ►  May (4)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (8)
    • ►  February (8)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2012 (91)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (5)
    • ►  October (11)
    • ►  September (8)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (12)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (9)
    • ►  February (10)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2011 (205)
    • ►  December (11)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (10)
    • ►  September (18)
    • ►  August (18)
    • ►  July (10)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ►  May (11)
    • ►  April (32)
    • ►  March (24)
    • ►  February (16)
    • ►  January (26)
  • ▼  2010 (163)
    • ►  December (20)
    • ►  November (20)
    • ►  October (23)
    • ►  September (28)
    • ►  August (28)
    • ►  July (29)
    • ▼  June (15)
      • Fartlekking: The Official Sport of TAE
      • The Dangerous Notion of Bountiful Oceans
      • More Bad Mouthing of Neil Armstrong
      • Tropical Storm Alex
      • Human Extinction During My Lifetime?
      • The Human Supercomputer
      • Leaking Oil
      • Imminent Nuclear Fusion Plants??
      • Cliche Sports Writing
      • Why Are We Even Alive?
      • She Ain't No Madonna.
      • "LiLo"
      • Bionic Breakthroughs
      • Who saw this coming:
      • An Open Letter to Country Music
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

hony
View my complete profile