Melting Greenland could yield 50 billion barrels of oil
Sometimes you read the newspaper and all you can do is shake your head. In an article that begins with a future scenario of Greenlanders putting away their dog sleds and transforming from reindeer hunters to oil platform workers, The Age offers up an article that informs us of one of the silver linings of global warming: 50 billion more barrels of oil. Excuse me while I light a cigar.
Apparently Greenland is practically oozing oil but there has always been this pesky thick layer of ice standing between it and the humans wanting to exploit this "resource." Now, thanks to rising temperatures from higher CO2 levels, this black gold bonanza will soon be within the reach of oil companies. In fact, Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Husky Energy have already been awarded exploration licenses and are busy
[Source: The Age]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Golden Boy 1:40PM (4/02/2008)
50 billion barrels! Awesome! Global warming looks like all upside to me.
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steven 2:23PM (4/02/2008)
You also forgot the one about we will all be able to use less fuel to heat our homes come what used to be know as winter!
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psarhjinian 3:07PM (4/02/2008)
Yesterday was April Fool's
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KarenRei 3:57PM (4/02/2008)
It's nice to see some media coverage of this. I wrote about this a while back on my site:
http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/greenwiki/Peak_oil
Everything from Baffin Bay all the way down to the Laborador Sea (where there are known natural gas deposits being produced) may well be one continuous oil and gas bearing region with as much potential as the entire North Sea. Seismic and gravity data show the entire area as filled with subsurface graben structures (traps). All along the west coast are deposits of bitumen (places where there used to be oil seeps, for which the volatile compounds evaporated). In a number of places there are fresh seeps. There's oil there, and by all signs, lots of it. The only real problem is the ice. Which is disappearing.
A lot of Greens, sadly, are putting their faith in the magical genie of "peak oil" to come along and force us off of our hydrocarbon lifestyle. Well, it's not going to happen, folks. There's just way too much hydrocarbon resources out there, and we keep finding even more and coming up with technology to make more things economically exploitable that weren't before. No peak oil genie is going to save us. We can only save ourselves.
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Edsel 4:18PM (4/02/2008)
Thank you KarenRei, that was an excellent summary of a very complex subject.
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armmat 4:47PM (4/02/2008)
50 Billion barrels...great...so we delay our oil shortage by 2-3 YEAR. How nice.
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psarhjinian 4:50PM (4/02/2008)
KarenRei,
So, let me get this straight: we cause a rise in sea levels, coastal flooding and global climate change...
...which is a good thing because it gives us a change at making things _worse_!?
Geeze...
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KarenRei 5:52PM (4/02/2008)
Where do you see me saying the words "good thing" or anything close to that?
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Kevin Nugent 8:04PM (4/02/2008)
Oh thats nice . lets get more oil so that we can burn and further push our luck with global warming . Yeah!!!! in 50 years we will all be in th next ice age
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Murc 1:47AM (4/03/2008)
psh, thats nothin, I just heard the the radio today that North Dakota (US) has a little thing called the "bakken Oil Formation", and they said it could have as much as 500 Billion barrels worth!
Which is Great News. so we can stop buying forieng oil. We (the US) buy like 14 million barrels worth PER DAY from other countries....so the more we have of the black gold, the better.
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Niralisherni 3:02AM (4/03/2008)
That is a very very scary thought!
It is not a reason to rejoice, that newly accessible oil reserves may become available in the near future, but a reason to be very very afraid. For one, the melting of the ice in Greenland is one more telltale sign and irrefutable proof of global warming and climate change. This means that what our polluting lifestyles have done is raise temperatures around the world, causing ice to melt, sea levels to rise and cause numerous other ruinous effects on our environment.
Further one more source or reserve of oil tapped means increased pollution and decreased commitment to greener energy and lifestyles. It will be a big setback for people committed to alternative energy and producing and making available to consumers more environment friendly lifestyles, if the Greenland oil reserves are permitted to be explioted.
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Rick 6:53PM (4/03/2008)
What is the accompanying photo? Looks like a photoshop smear tool experiment.
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black gold 10:46AM (4/03/2008)
The global warming and alternate fuel maroons will have a collective cow with this one.
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gavinb 10:58AM (11/13/2009)
Most people think it is up to the governments to stop the progress of climate change and global warming. In one hand they are correct but on the other hand it is up to ourselves to help the planet and our civilization. If we don't do it singly then we will fail our future children and grandchildren who will have the unknown forced upon them. Governments and energy companies have started the ball rolling. We are seeing a large increase in renewable energy sources here in the UK. My local energy supplier has been taken over by a larger firm - SSE - who specialize in supplying cheap gas and electricity" through hydro projects, cheaper cleaner and greener. If we all work as one we will be able to make a difference. The question is how much of a difference can we make.
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