Slim Pickens...er, Pickings.
July 12th 2008 10:05
This should really have gone on my other blog, WorkReport, since that usually talks about things green, but I put it on here by mistake and couldn't be bothered to shift it again.
The only person I’ve known with the surname of Pickens was the actor Slim Pickens (perhaps most famous for riding a nuclear warhead at the end of Dr Strangelove). I’m not sure if T Boone Pickens is any relation, but he sure talks in the same way.
I watched a video of him explaining that the US could replace its use of natural gas for power generation with wind, and then use the natural gas for transportation instead of some portion of the oil that the US imports annually. (70% is imported currently – no wonder Mr Bush didn’t want Iraq playing any games with him.)
It sounds like a good idea, and a fairly simple one – apart from loading up the land with wind farms. Here in Otago, the province where I live, there’s been a good deal of argument about the installation of wind farms in the back country. Every argument under the sun against them has been brought against them. Unfortunately the same people who argue against them don’t seem to have any better ideas.
Obviously we wouldn’t want a wind farm at every corner, but these ones were mooted to be out in places that few people would see. (NZ has an awful lot of back country.) This still didn’t convince the naysayers. These sort of battles just delay what will have to be done eventually. It’s a pity people can’t just think of the future more, rather than less.
NZ is probably in a similar situation in terms of oil. We produce very little ourselves, though there’s a theory that we have huge untapped reserves still available to us. However, these are nowhere near ready to be welled as yet, and may not be for some long time. (And if the we go about exporting oil the way we export the best of everything else we probably won’t have much of that either!)
At the rate we’re going, we’ll all cycling on land and rowing inflatable boats on water. Flying will a thing of the past. Let’s hope things improve before then!
Here’s the video I was talking about.
The only person I’ve known with the surname of Pickens was the actor Slim Pickens (perhaps most famous for riding a nuclear warhead at the end of Dr Strangelove). I’m not sure if T Boone Pickens is any relation, but he sure talks in the same way.
I watched a video of him explaining that the US could replace its use of natural gas for power generation with wind, and then use the natural gas for transportation instead of some portion of the oil that the US imports annually. (70% is imported currently – no wonder Mr Bush didn’t want Iraq playing any games with him.)
It sounds like a good idea, and a fairly simple one – apart from loading up the land with wind farms. Here in Otago, the province where I live, there’s been a good deal of argument about the installation of wind farms in the back country. Every argument under the sun against them has been brought against them. Unfortunately the same people who argue against them don’t seem to have any better ideas.
Obviously we wouldn’t want a wind farm at every corner, but these ones were mooted to be out in places that few people would see. (NZ has an awful lot of back country.) This still didn’t convince the naysayers. These sort of battles just delay what will have to be done eventually. It’s a pity people can’t just think of the future more, rather than less.
NZ is probably in a similar situation in terms of oil. We produce very little ourselves, though there’s a theory that we have huge untapped reserves still available to us. However, these are nowhere near ready to be welled as yet, and may not be for some long time. (And if the we go about exporting oil the way we export the best of everything else we probably won’t have much of that either!)
At the rate we’re going, we’ll all cycling on land and rowing inflatable boats on water. Flying will a thing of the past. Let’s hope things improve before then!
Here’s the video I was talking about.
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