Paranoia and Fear

[Larraque]

I typed this up for the burka thread, but I felt it diverged too far from the original topic.

I have often felt that in america, people tend not to learn from the lessons of history - at least not the scientific lessons, and would rather obliterate any possibility of bad incidents ever happening again. We've seen it after september 11th (which the burka ban - is a continuing part of that aftermath, however indirectly), and now we're seeing it after the BP oil spill and fukushima.

BP - as a result, we now have a 100% ban on new offshore drilling facilities. Even though if it were to happen again, WE HAVE A PRETTY GOOD IDEA HOW TO FIX IT NOW. Science - it's awesome! Hell, it's not even hard science, it's trial and error science - the kind that most of us know the most about, having grown up and learned most of what we know from trial and error. The reality of $4 a gallon gas isn't even enough to make people say 'lets drill it up baby!'

Fukushima - as a result, we have pretty much full-stopped on building any new nuclear facilities - Even though the nation is 100% committed to nuclear power, as a cleaner, cheaper alternative to coal. It's not like we can take the 100+ facilities we have offline and replace them immediately. If a natural disaster were to hit any of these (and no place is safe from a natural disaster) - what would we do? I am confident we can do a better job containing it thanks to the lessons learned from Chernobyl and Fukushima. It just seems like paranoia and fear rule the day more than logic and reasoning.

A lot of this is 'citation needed' - I don't really know everything that's gone on in the wake of these disasters - but if we refuse to learn from them, how will we ever grow as a people/nation?  It's a lot like 'planes crash, so no one fly'

[msteelers]

You forgot #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement

[msteelers]

but if we refuse to learn from them, how will we ever grow as a people/nation?

What if we learned that offshore drilling isn't worth the risk?

[Autistic Angel]

BP - as a result, we now have a 100% ban on new offshore drilling facilities.

Link

10th deepwater drilling permit issued for well off Louisiana coast

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement today approved the tenth permit to drill a well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico since the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a year ago.

The most recent approval is for a well proposed by Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC in Walker Ridge Block 969. The well would be drilled in 7,813 feet of water about 219 miles south of Houma.

-Autistic Angel

[hepcat]

Stupid facts.  Always pokin' their nose in things that don't concern them...

[Alefroth]

I think you're over-reacting.

Ale

[DOSHIGH]

I'll help with some citations:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otheranalysis/aeo_2009analysispapers/aongr.html

In a nutshell, a continued moratorium on offshore drilling in the lower 48 states will decrease the cost of gas by a whole  3 cents a gallon in 2030.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html

US contains a whopping 1.37% of the proven oil reserves in the world.  You really think "Drill, Baby, Drill" is going to impact world oil prices?

As far as nuclear, it is way cleaner than coal but can't compete on cost when dealing with the need for new plants.  Nuclear won't be economically competitive with coal until we develop more advanced reactors and/or put a price on carbon.  I don't have any citations for nuclear power cost since they are all over the board, I've read $0.15 to $0.30 per kWh whereas coal is under $0.10/kWh.  Solar & wind will almost certainly be more competitive with coal in many areas since the technology is advancing so quickly, but they of course have their own drawbacks. It's from Dec 2008 and from Time/CNN but gives the basic problems with nuclear:  http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1869203,00.html

[raydude]

BP - as a result, we now have a 100% ban on new offshore drilling facilities.

As shown by AA, this is "Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement"

[Blackjack]

Just a reminder the World Ends Tomorrow (May 21), so after that, all this paranoia and fear will be a moot point, right? 

[Gryndyl]

If your premise is accurate then wouldn't Fukushima have been prevented due to the lessons learned from Chernobyl?

I woulds ay that the scientific lesson from this is develop wind and solar energy. Not that we've learned that either.