Offshore drilling is in the center of the debate for energy independence. Many see this option as a way to lower gas prices for Americans and to reduce our independence on foreign oil. Behind the slogan, "Drill Baby Drill", many conservatives are pushing for the advancement of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. However, offshore drilling is in no way the right path for America to take if we truly want to be energy independent. In fact more offshore drilling is a step in the exact wrong direction. Offshore drilling is not a good idea because the environmental risks of drilling are too high, resources and funding for energy independence should be spent on other renewable options, and additional offshore drilling is only a short term solution to a long term problem.

-Environmental damages resulting from offshore drilling include oil spills, rig fires and damages to oceanic flora and fauna. It is not a question of if a large spill will occur but when. History shows us that offshore drilling is dangerous to local environments.

-Additional drilling is a step in the wrong directions. True energy independence in the future will include clean, renewable resources such as solar and wind power. By focusing on drilling still we delay our inevitable shift towards renewable energy. Some of this reluctance to shift focus is due to political ties to big oil companies which hinder democratic and progressive change in favor of profits.

-The additional drilling is inefficient and will not affect the US prices of oil or supply for years. This time it would take to produce additional oil should be spent on developing new sources of energy. The amount of oil found in the Gulf is not enough to truly make a difference in our energy resource supply.

TreeHugger
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/02/offshore-drilling-oil-false-hope.php

Texas A+M Economist
http://www.kbtx.com/tamu/headlines/25544349.html

Gulf News Article
http://gulfnews.com/business/opinion/americans-debate-pros-and-cons-of-offshore-drilling-1.118235

Energy Bill- Offshore Drilling Language
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/22/22greenwire-offshore-drilling-language-poses-problems-for-73614.html

Wash Post-Obama Drilling Ban
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/11/drilling-ban-revisited/

USA Today Article
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-13-offshore-drilling_N.htm

Ethanol Scam

I was very interested in the ethanol scam chapter of Food Inc. It is a major issue that received a lot of hype when first introduced as a possible energy source. It seemed all so easy, grow corn, make it into ethanol and no more oil would have to be used ever. However, as the chapter points out and as the issue has been researched more and more it becomes apparent that the idea of corn ethanol is very unlikely and highly inefficient. While the technology is now available to produce cars which could run entirely on ethanol, the issue of how to produce enough ethanol is troubling. To start, there is no where near enough land in the US to produce enough corn to power everything currently relying on oil. In fact the amount of land currently used to produce corn could only power roughly 6% of all cars in the US. Add to this fact that the production of corn ethanol results in higher food prices, increased air pollution, increased water consumption, and water pollution, it is obvious that the risks of becoming completely dependent on corn ethanol are not only unfeasible but also too costly to the environment.

Position for Research Exploration

After exploring the options of offshore drilling I have decided to be against drilling. The reason for my opposition includes the limited short term benefits of drilling, the environmental impacts that are inherent in drilling and the lack of focus towards a new renewable and clean source of energy. It is apparent to me that the decision to increase offshore drilling would be illogical and only add to America's dependence on traditional energy sources such as oil and coal. Instead my position is to keep the rigs we currently have operating but spend future oil investments in the development and implementation of new energy sources such as solar and wind power. While the actualization of these energy sources as viable and large scale enough to power the US seems far off, the use of these sources is also an important step in creating energy independence. In my essay I will explain why offshore drilling is not a good future option for the US and focus on how better the resources could be used to create new energy sources for the US.

Food Inc Forst Installment

The moment in the movie that continues to stand out in my mind is the segment when they first show chicken farming. The man Vince is driving out to his houses and is explaining how the process works and how the chickens are raised. Everything seems set to go until text appears on the screen and explains to the audience that Vince would not be able to show us his houses because representatives of Tyson strongly suggested that he not let the film crews in. From there the film crew goes to another chicken farmers house, whose name I cannot recall. However this lady seems a bit more skeptical of her role in chicken farming for Tyson. What is effective in the films presentation of this chicken farmer is the various overlays of text they add to supplement her very personal, intriguing story. The director gets her to really open up about her personal feelings of chicken farming and how the chicken industry has evolved. The most interesting part of the whole clip is how she starts talking about the chicken house upgrades she has to constantly keep pace with and how they have thrown her into debt. The text then explains that the average chicken farmer has more than 500000 in loans but only receives about 18000 a year from their labor. This disparity really stood out in my mind as the ultimate example of exploitation in the food industry.

Things in the film that really helped emphasize and explain the material better included the moving fonts, the overlays of facts, and just the personal perspective that every interview seemed to have.

The book I feel is a more detailed reference guide to the film. The main sections we have covered thus far include first person perspectives of Eric Schlosser and Gary Hirschberg, both of whom have major sections in the film about their concepts and ideology. I liked teh intermittent chapters a little better in that they give more facts about the actual "food inc." and tell the true story of what is wrong with our food industry. The chapter on the six worst practices in the meat industry was pretty powerful and stuck out in mu head.

To Drill or Not to Drill? Prospectus Intro

So I have decided to change my topic from invasive species to offshore drilling which I think is a much more accessible and relevant topic to today's environmental issues. Offshore drilling has become a major topic of debate in the US today as oil prices are rising and the search for energy independence is on the forefront of national policy. The logic behind offshore drilling is that the US needs oil, the US has the resources that produce oil, so why not get it from US soil (water)? While it is true that the US does produce some oil already, many people in the general public , the oil industry, and government alike are calling for an expansion of oil drilling and production. Currently America only produces about 10% of the total oil used in the world. Much of this oil comes from the Louisiana coast (an offshore drilling sector), Alaska, and California (half offshore, half on land). The idea of expanding offshore drilling would target the Gulf of Mexico where an estimated 18 billion extra barrels of oil could be produced on top of the 68 billion already being procured.
While the facts are that the US has oil and it can be drilled and used there are also two sides to the debate over whether or not the US should actually follow through with the plan. The side that is in favor of drilling cite the rising price of gas as an important reason to drill. They say that any extra gas would help alleviate the principles of supply and demand. If there is greater supply, the price of gas will go down. The pro side also looks to the dependence on foreign countries (mainly in the middle east) as a unhealthy relationship and one that puts the US at the whim of major oil producing countries. If the US can find and use more of its own resources then we are less likely to be hurt if supply of oil from those foreign producers diminishes or ceases.
On the other side of the ball, those against additional offshore drilling have three main concerns, environmental side effects of drilling, the irrational time line of producing from additional offshore drilling and the dependence on traditional energy resources. The first concern, environmental impact, includes the possible catastrophic risk of oil spills along America's coastlines which would not only harm wildlife and plant species but also ruin the tourism industry in areas such as Florida and Texas. They say it is not a question of if an accident will occur but when it will occur. The second argument against drilling is that the actual time it would take to procure any oil from additional drilling is a minimum of 8 years. The logic is that in eight years is far too long to wait for oil especially since the US would run through the oil found in only three years. Eight years of work and potential environmental damages are not worth three years of oil use. And finally, opponents of drilling say that drilling is a step in the wrong direction. rather than spend millions to find more oil which runs out in a short time span, why not invest in new energy technology which has the potential for clean, renewable use for decades to come.

Texas A+M Economist
http://www.kbtx.com/tamu/headlines/25544349.html

Gulf News Article
http://gulfnews.com/business/opinion/americans-debate-pros-and-cons-of-offshore-drilling-1.118235

Virginia Senators
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60R15M20100128?type=politicsNews

Energy Bill- Offshore Drilling Language
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/01/22/22greenwire-offshore-drilling-language-poses-problems-for-73614.html

Wash Post-Obama Drilling Ban
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/11/drilling-ban-revisited/

Offshore Magazine
http://www.offshore-mag.com/index.html

USA Today Article
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-07-13-offshore-drilling_N.htm

Natural Gas.org
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/extraction_offshore.asp

David Maywhoor

I thought that Mr. Maywhoor's presentation was interesting and very much well meaning. I understand his points that is a negative thing to have the government using public taxpayer land to clear cut forests. It is obviously a very passionate topic for him and one that is important to the environment of Ohio. His organization seems well-meaning as well. However I did disagree with several points that Mr. Maywhoor made, namely that the use of public land for forestry shoudl be completely done away with. While he notes that the clear cutting of forests is short-sighted in terms of the environment I would also argue that his view taht all public land should be preserved and not used for logging is also short sighted. The reason I say this is that he does not take into account the local economies that are supported by public land logging. He noted that many of the communities that use public land for logging arefairly poor and rely on the logging for jobs etc. To completely cut all those jobs and take away the local economy of some communities could be devastating to the people that live there. It seems as if Mr. Maywhoor was calling for the abolishment of logging without creating a viable future option, especially for the local communities involved. The other issue I took a different stance on which I believe Eric Reece would agree with me on is the fact that the money from logging is mainly used by the communities. Maywhoor suggested that the money be distributed around the state equally to maximize fairness for the taxpayers of Ohio. However as it is I believe the money created from the logging needs to stay mainly in the communities from which it came. It does not make sense in my mind to distribute those funds to places in Ohio such as Cleveland or Cincinnati which have no interests or economic ties to Ohio logging. In order to create a better future for those communities that are logging it is necessary to give back the resources created from logging includign better education, jobs, and community improvemment projects. If these steps are taken then perhaps we could eventually ween off public logging and still have productive, sustainable communities.

Research Prospectus: Invasive species

So I decided that my topic for the research will be invasive species. I find the topic very interesting in that it is not a typical problem you hear about. It is also exciting because it involves intense natural competition and is a perfect exhibit of evolution in action. The first thing I wanted to research in this topic is a couple of species I have heard about and known were causing a problem. Recently the asian carp which is an enormous fish brought into the United States in the 1970's for help with algae control was found in a river tributary of Lake Superior. This suggests that the Asian carp will enter the Great Lakes (the largest fresh water source in the world). The negative effects of Asian carp infestation are that the carp literally eat its way through the Great Lakes. It can eat 40 percent of its body in a day. (Chicagotribune.com) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1208byrnedec08,0,7604635.column After the asian carp i found another species that is considered invasive called the snakehead pike. This is a nasty looking fish that also eats its way through competition. It has no predators above it and will take over fish populations. The fish is very interesting because it can live 4 days on land and can breath atmospheric air. It can travel across the land and move from lake to lake. This gives environmental agents fits because they want to eradicate the snakeheads but they spread rapidly and can jump ponds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakehead_(fish) After snakeheads I swithSo I decided that my topic for the research will be invasive species. I find the topic very interesting in that it is not a typical problem you hear about. It is also exciting because it involves intense natural competition and is a perfect exhibit of evolution in action. The first thing I wanted to research in this topic is a couple of species I have heard about and known were causing a problem. Recently the asian carp which is an enormous fish brought into the United States in the 1970's for help with algae control was found in a river tributary of Lake Superior. This suggests that the Asian carp will enter the Great Lakes (the largest fresh water source in the world). The negative effects of Asian carp infestation are that the carp literally eat its way through the Great Lakes. It can eat 40 percent of its body in a day. (Chicagotribune.com) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1208byrnedec08,0,7604635.column After the asian carp i found another species that is considered invasive called the snakehead pike. This is a nasty looking fish that also eats its way through competition. It has no predators above it and will take over fish populations. The fish is very interesting because it can live 4 days on land and can breath atmospheric air. It can travel across the land and move from lake to lake. This gives environmental agents fits because they want to eradicate the snakeheads but they spread rapidly and can jump ponds. So I decided that my topic for the research will be invasive species. I find the topic very interesting in that it is not a typical problem you hear about. It is also exciting because it involves intense natural competition and is a perfect exhibit of evolution in action. The first thing I wanted to research in this topic is a couple of species I have heard about and known were causing a problem. Recently the asian carp which is an enormous fish brought into the United States in the 1970's for help with algae control was found in a river tributary of Lake Superior. This suggests that the Asian carp will enter the Great Lakes (the largest fresh water source in the world). The negative effects of Asian carp infestation are that the carp literally eat its way through the Great Lakes. It can eat 40 percent of its body in a day. (Chicagotribune.com) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1208byrnedec08,0,7604635.column After the asian carp i found another species that is considered invasive called the snakehead pike. This is a nasty looking fish that also eats its way through competition. It has no predators above it and will take over fish populations. The fish is very interesting because it can live 4 days on land and can breath atmospheric air. It can travel across the land and move from lake to lake. This gives environmental agents fits because they want to eradicate the snakeheads but they spread rapidly and can jump ponds.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakehead_(fish)After this I switched focus and went to a plant invasive specie called kudzu. Kudzuis common just about everywhere in the eastern US and grows at an incredible rate. It can grow up to a foot a day and literally covers entire houses and forests. Obviously this creates some problems as it is a parasite to communities and the environment as well. Kudzu can cover a tree and basically kill and take down the tree. It will cut off life to anything it covers. At this point there is little hope for eradication because it grows so fast and is so plentiful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu I found all this research interesting I have to figure out what my position would be on this topic. I want to research ways that that people are trying to deal w these problems. For instance, people are proposing many options to deal with the asian carp problem. One solution would be to close or renovate the Chicago Sanitation and Shiping canal or outfitting the structure with fish zappers that kill many fish in hopes of staving off one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakehead_Fish
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1208byrnedec08,0,7604635.column