Good points, it is certainly a fine line between controlling pollution and hampering a domestic industry which would otherwise be replaced by equally bad overseas industry. As bad as the pollution seemed, the wells were very clean compared to how things used to be done in the US not that long ago, and how I assume things are still done in many parts of the world.
I have a hard time blaming the oil company in isolation, they are just doing what they must do for shareholders, as you said. As long as there is demand for oil, there will be someone there to supply it. I mostly blame the government for not doing more to expedite the development of more economical green solutions.
BUT! Although the company I worked for was not one of the majors who hid climate change, they do have a substantial superPAC to influence politics and elections. The billionaire owner regularly flew to Washington to meet with people, even the president.
And when the state government wanted to increase taxes on oil to help the state pay for public services, the oil company printed lots of protest signs and bussed employees who volunteered to go to the state capital and protest. These types of interference in the government hinder progress and keep the oil companies in control. The gov needs to stop this behavior but I think it's a feedback loop of corruption.
Wow, that's horrible. It is so wrong that the authorities were able to keep her detained just because they don't agree with the judge's multiple rulings... for 6 years?!
I hope that as more of the world gets access to the Internet and information that more and more people will leave religions. When I was able to freely read the history of different religions and critical analysis by atheists it made my mind up fairly quickly.
I believe the only reason a "crazy second choice" exists is because we have such limited options to choose from when voting.
With rank choice voting, more candidates could run within a party without competing for votes because you would be able to vote for all of your favorite people in order without worrying what party they fall into.
We could vote for people we like instead of voting to avoid the person we hate.
If only the politicians in the dominant parties had any incentive to make elections fair for all parties. As it stands, the dominant parties have too many systems in place to give themselves advantages.
Rank choice voting seems like an obvious upgrade to our current voting system but is nowhere to be found other than a couple states.
Yup, I considered the pixel watch for my android phone but Garmin has an advantage over it in every category while having no subscription. I would have considered an apple watch if it were compatible with android.
I think the pixel watch is doomed to fail unless they can separate from the Fitbit model and continue to improve the hardware and software.
It's not brainwashing when the voting system is specifically set up to give an advantage to the dominant parties and to suppress every minority party. There are valid reasons to be skeptical that a 3rd party could ever win without a reformed voting system.
Exactly. US oil companies won't voluntarily "go green" unless it is more profitable to do so.
I was a production engineer at a US oil company for 5 years and each week I was instructed to calculate what the maximum amount of natural gas each well was allowed to flare while staying exactly below the legal limit. This is natural gas which cannot be sold so it is burned on-site which produces less greenhouse gases than just releasing it to the atmosphere.
Essentially, I was helping them pollute the maximum legal amount in order to maximize profit from the oil production. The gas pipelines hadn't been built yet but the oil company didn't want to wait for that since the oil is more valuable. This was A LOT of gas being burned. The fire balls were enormous and roared, sounding like a helicopter or jet engine at times.
Everything in the company worked this way. Old wells didn't get plugged and cleaned up until the local state government threatened fines. Leaks and spills were only monitored as closely as they were because the state had inspectors going around issuing hefty fines.