geobeck’s Recent Comments

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  How much we talkin' bout?

  Just how much oil does the USA get from Canada anyway?  A couple of barrels here and there?  Cutting off the oil sands won't make that much of a difference.  It's not like we're the USA's #1 source of oil or anything.

  Oh, wait a minute...
  http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publica ...On Canadians fear U.S. energy bill clause could disallow oil-sands exports posted 1 year, 8 months ago 9 Responses

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  More harm than good

  This is NOT a carbon tax, but it gives the impression that it is one.  People are going to fill up their tanks thinking that the new tax is offsetting their emissions, when it's actually going straight back to them in tax credits (minus administrative costs, of course).

  This is a well-intended but poorly-implemented pigovian tax, and its only result will be to increase the cost of products on store shelves everywhere--because commercial truckers, who will be hardest hit, will pass the cost on to their customers.
  On British Columbia unveils carbon tax posted 1 year, 8 months ago 4 Responses

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  The nay-sayers will still say nay...

  Since it hasn't been very long since the sun's 'U-turn' in 1985, deniers will simply say there is a lag time before the temperature turns around.  Just long enough to melt the Greenland ice cap, maybe.  Then they'll have more anti-warming 'evidence'...On It's Not the Sun posted 2 years, 4 months ago 2 Responses

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  Types of B-D plastic, types of landfills

  A couple of comments on the comments:  

  There are several ways to make biodegradable plastic.  One is to use biologically-based polymers that may or may not break down in a composting facility or a landfill.  Another common technique is to use mostly petro-plastic, but insert bio-plastic monomers into the plastic as it is made.  Plastics made with these hybrid polymer chains will break down into smaller pieces quickly, but will still leave tiny particles that will not degrade.  I call this "out of sight, out of mind" plastic.

  There are also different kinds of landfills.  The "dry tomb" design tries to isolate waste, and make sure nothing gets in or out.  Another type uses soil between lifts.  Depending on the content of air and organic matter in the soil, aerobic degradation may occur.  Anaerobic degradation (which is much slower) occurs in many landfills.  The end-product, methane gas, is often captured and used to produce energy.  

  But there is no guarantee that degradation won't occur in a dry tomb, or that it will occur in the other types.  Bill Rathje once studied landfills across the USA, and found no consistent pattern of degradation.  He found 60-year-old newspapers with the headlines still readable in some landfills, and paper turned to mush in others.  Local climate had less of an effect than he anticipated.

  The best solution is to do what matrogers did: At an event where you typically use disposable items, do your best to use reusable ones.  The first 'R', 'reuse', is always the most effective, because the use of the second (reduce) or third (recycle) always results in the fifth: residual.On Umbra on biodegradable products posted 2 years, 4 months ago 5 Responses

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  Adding fuel to the fire?

  "Some of the water plant operators are increasing the level of disinfectant as an additional safety measure."  

  I sure hope they're using ozone, not chlorine, or residents are in for a nasty surprise!On Black Coffeyville posted 2 years, 4 months ago 1 Response