Tag: nature

A few weeks ago, I mentioned another oil spill, this one in my home state.

Although smaller than the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, this one is still estimated to be 1 million gallons—which to me is a huge amount of petroleum.

Today it was reported that the company responsible for the spill estimated that the cleanup would end up costing them $400 million.  That’s about $400 for each gallon spilled!

Though I’ve not heard news recently about the status of the clean up—since the media enjoys broadcasting bad news, I assume that no news is good news—it seems that the focus has already shifted beyond cleanup to the cost.

For PB it is a much different story. They will be in the news for a long, long time — and I suspect that their effective cost per gallon spilled will likewise be much, much more than $400 a gallon.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book The Successful Author for insider tips and insights.

With the monsoons continuing to deluge Pakistan, producing flooding, causing a lack of shelter, food, and clean drinking water, and resulting in death, I wonder, “Can’t something be done to prevent this?”

It is silly, of course, to think that the weather can be controlled — or is it?  Could a monsoon, hurricane, typhoon, or tornado be redirected to a less populated area or safely dissipated before damage is done?  Though it may seem laughable or even arrogant to propose, consider “the butterfly effect” which suggests otherwise.

The Butterfly Effect, based on chaos theory, postulates that a small event, such as a butterfly flapping its wings, could have a much larger effect someplace else, such as altering, causing, or averting a tornado.  (Check out the Wikipedia entry for the Butterfly Effect for more information than you likely care to know).

Although the location of the altered weather is random and cannot be predetermined, it seems that something could somehow be done to mitigate the damage of a developing storm.  Yes, it would take more than a butterfly or two, but caught early enough, it would seem that a reasonably small event could be introduced to calm a storm’s fury.

It would be akin to the idea of altering the path of an approaching asteroid.  If done when it was far enough away, the trajectory need only be changed a fraction of a degree to cause it to completely miss the earth.  Again, it would be a minor event, producing a huge change.  Why not?

(While we’re on the subject, I recommend that you not watch the 2004 movie, The Butterfly Effect.)

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book The Successful Author for insider tips and insights.

The attention of North America and possibly the world is on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but southwest Michigan is dealing with its own oil spill.  Although at an estimated one million gallons, it is relatively small in comparison, it has been receiving much attention locally and was deemed newsy enough to garner some national coverage over the weekend.

Michigan’s oil spill is on the Kalamazoo River (albeit not the part that goes through Kalamazoo). Although the water will disperse it just like on the gulf, there are some key differences.

One is that on a river, the oil is relatively contained. There is no question as to where it will go; it will go downstream, whereas the oil in the gulf is at the mercy of changing weather, water patterns, and numerous other variables that make its path hard to predict. Another difference is that recovery and repair crews can reach our spill much quicker and address it more effectively. A third issue is that the source of the leak is a pipeline on the surface, as opposed to being thousands of feet under water in a challenging work environment — and not insignificantly, our leak was quickly stopped.

Oh, one more key difference is that the company responsible seems to be responding properly and admirably, possibly having learned a lesson from BP’s slow and oft-criticized response.

Workers have been mobilized and are out skimming the oil off the river and groups are rescuing oil-covered wildlife (which so far as been minimal).  While some people have had to temporarily leave their homes (toxic fumes) and others are advised to drink bottled water, the impact is not looking too severe.  Even though a million gallons of oil seems like a formidable amount, there is confidence that this spill can be quickly dealt with and contained before it causes greater havoc or reaches Lake Michigan (some 70 miles away).

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is an author, blogger, and publisher with over 30 years of writing and publishing experience. Check out his book The Successful Author for insider tips and insights.