Global Economy ::: Tropical Storm Alex and Myths About Oil

There are concerns that gulf oil operations & key shipping ports will be affected by a tropical storm, as well as key Gulf shipping ports. Crude oil prices rose on Friday as a result of the tropical storm warnings.

Storm may slam BP oil cleanup sites (Sue Chang / Marketwatch) ::: Tropical storm Alex, moving toward the coast of Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is expected to move into the southern Gulf of Mexico by Sunday night, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Saturday. In doing more googling, I found other sources saying "Computer models no longer show Tropical Storm Alex passing over the spill when it leaves the Western Caribbean." That bit of info was "5 hours ago" as opposed to Marketwatch's report from 27 minutes ago (that's as of 2:51pm New York Time).

The Oil Spill has stolen the spotlight. People are distracted by it for now, temporarily placing the global economy (recession) on the back burner. There is no agreement on how to make recovery happen.

On Forbes.com, Alex Epstein writes "Prominent scientists and economists claim oil will soon run out and ruin us. It doesn't. Why not? Because, in a market, when demand increases or available supply decreases, prices go up, and thus entrepreneurs have an incentive to discover better methods of locating and extracting oil--or substitutes for oil. Over time yesterday's "impossible" oil becomes today's "easy" oil, and entrepreneurs forgo using oil when they can find a cheaper substitute." - Epstein continues, giving solid examples.

Stretch your imagination beyond its usual field of protection. Consider whether oil (crude, black gold, texas tea) might just be the "blood" of our Mother Earth. That the entire planet is a living breathing being (just as we have millions of microbes and parasites and other creatures that dwell within and upon US) which is capable of replenishing itself? THINK.

And what about the stuff we call "Natural Gas" - this vapor may well be another component of the being Earth. Nowadays, environmentalists and others are deeply concerned about horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, as well as the chemicals that are used to fracture rock in order to release the gas. (Not to mention the tremendous amounts of water required in the process).

Of great interest at this time is the Marcellus Shale, a black shale formation extending deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York. A technical paper from Penn State and SUNY-Fredonia, estimates original gas in place at 168-516 Tcf and recoverable reserves of as much as 50 Tcf.

Back in the 1970s scientists were deeply concerned about global cooling. Nowadays, it's WARMING that's worrying them. I wonder, could "bleeding" oil and "venting" gas from the planet be contributing to "Global Warming" and could scientists be missing the mark - that we may in fact be heading for "Global Cooling" in the form of another "Ice Age" - and if we are - how much of mankind will be able to survive?

See Also:
NY State Sues BP

Almighty Oil

Updates on the Gulf Oil Spill

Tags: BP, Gulf Oil Spill, Alex