Peak Oil Evidence

One of the most sobering aspects of nonrenewable resources is that essentially they will run out sooner or later. They are a finite resource. How will that effect us in this lifetime? The fact is actually that it will affect us in this present lifetime. The resources will not 'run out' per se, but what will affect everyone is 'peak oil'. Peak oil  is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This relates to global extraction which some researchers in the oil and sciences industries have estimated are happening from either currently or within the next 5-15 years.

The article from the Energy Information Agency that I found on Tuesday, September 21st, 2011, portrays interesting information regarding United Kingdom oil and natural gas production as well as consumption from 2000- 2010. The paths cross around 2004 with natural gas, and 2005 for oil. 

RENOVATIONS

Hi,

This post is a continuation of what it has been created for. This profile and therefore blog of information and ideas previously recorded and express was created for a class I had taken for a politics class called Public Opinion. Now I am not in this class.

I have been accepted into the Renewable Energy major at Illinois State University and will continue the blog in the same purpose but as a recreational perspective. This will not jeopordize the material however since I stay heavily involved in the current events of the material and will resume posting this material on my blog along wiht ideas, critique, evidence, etcetera. 

TDR

Changing gears

Hi, this is Tom. The blogs previous to this were for the purpose of presenting public opinion on renewable energy for a class in college. Everything ensuing will be off the record for that class but will continue use for renewable energy discussion.

Final Topic Presentation

This Tuesday December 7th, 2010, we will all be giving a speech about our topic lasting for around 5 minutes and highlight a specific issue I found interesting about the research I have conducted over the past several months. While trying to decide what was most important to talk about I couldn't settle on any specific attribute about renewable energy. Then I thought, "Well, what is the most interesting thing I have learned about the topic in general?" To that question I would have to say that it would have to be the divide among citizens and voters regarding their stances on renewable energy. I didn't realize there was so much of a partisanship perspective that is involved in this technology. In an article I found, 38% of PEOPLE believe that the Democratic party would do a better job at dealing with the nation's energy problems, as oppose to 28% of the people who believed the Republicans would do a better job.

In another poll done showed evidence that in terms of the overall goal for our countries answer for energy issues, 52% of Republicans OVER 28% of Democrats, believe that the top priority to keep energy prices low, which may come at a cost to the environment.  While when asked about the top priority should be to protect the environment at all costs, 41% of Republicans agreed with this and 68% of Democrats endorsed this statement. 

These are just a few of the examples I have come across as to the divide among political parties about the energy issue.

What Barack Obama Said..and Did?

I was recently looking on Gallup's Website at some polls regarding the Gulf Oil Spill and public opinions towards the event and who should take responsibility in its causation.  I then tried to look into what President Barack Obama was planning on doing in terms of renewable energy and the future of this countries involvement with oil. As far as what I know Barack Obama has SAID what his opinion was on renewable energy use in America and what the future will have in store for America if we don't consider the future of renewable energy. In the video Barack Obama said he will "invest $150 Billion dollars over the period of 10 years," this statement was in 2008. "in establishing a green energy sector creating up to 5 million new green jobs, and those jobs pay well and can not be outsourced." Two years later in a USA Today/Gallup poll one of their questions, where a random-digit-dial sampling of 1,014 adults of age 18 or older living in the continental U.S., on June 11-13th, 2010, asks "As you may know, BP is currently in charge of the efforts to control the oil spill and its effects on the ocean and coastal areas. Do you think the federal government should take over these efforts, or should BP continue to be in charge?" In respondents 45% believed that the federal government should be responsible for the cleanup efforts and 49% believed that BP should be responsible for it. that means if asked whether or not the federal government needs to or BP needs to, and more people take this as a enforcement of movement towards renewable energy resources.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has brought up offshore drilling and the government's role in the policy towards energy and the entire industry. The environment in this year's primaries is a hot topic issue for voters. This issue is especially salient in those states in the southern parts of The United States of America where the oil spill by British Petroleum has severely altered many people's life on a daily basis. A lot of citizens are thus concerned about what they will do in the future because a lot of people who make a living off of fishing and the Gulf's ecosystem have not been able to fish do to all the oil and chemicals and pollutants in the water.

The first poll I found was taken between May 13-16, 2010 that was asking 1,002 adults from telephone interviews what national issue that congress should act on. Priorities for congress that these adults in the sample panned out in the order from most important to least important, the job situation (81%), the country's energy needs (57%), immigration policy (59%), financial regulation (54%), climate change (32%). What the Pew Research Center shows by doing these polls is that the number two most important issue that citizens believe the government should be working on is the country's energy needs. Climate change was also on the top five list which is significant that two different environment issues are needed to be eagerly dealt with.

Another poll done between June 10-13, 2010 I found by the Pew Research Center involving 1,010 adults in telephone interviews, asks people what they believe the United States Government should do in regard to offshore drilling. 31% said they believe the government should expand drilling, 35% wished to allow offshore drilling but ban the development of new wells, 22% said that all offshore drilling should be banned, and 12% didn't know. People you can then conclude that due to the situation in the gulf, one of the countries most salient issues they want congress to deal with, people want the government to get more involved in the surveillance and monitoring of mining and drilling for resources in deep water.

Public Opinions on GLobal Warming Have Changed Little Over the Past Few Years

Our teacher Dr. Gelbman e-mailed this article to me today with enthusiasm about the results. I was as well intrigued by the results that ended up coming out of the research. What I was most intrigued with was how divided the two different parties are in terms of what their opinions on global warming is, what they believe is the cause of it, and the confusion of whether or not the scientific community believes global warming is actually occurring.

In a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, with interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, have yeilded opinions among adults has changed very little on global warming. In terms of the number of people who believe it exists or is caused by humans. The poll was conducted between October 13-18, 2010 among 2,251 adults age 18 or older living in the continental United States. The researches used 1,487 respondents on a landline telephone, 764 people on a cell phone, 311 of those who did not own a landline.

59% of adults said that there is solid evidence that the Earth's average temperature has been getting warmer over the past few decades, compared to 57% who said this in October 2009. 34% say that global warming is occurring mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, compared to 36% who said this in October 2009. These results are interesting to see how stable this opinion poll can be. 32% said that global warming is a very serious problem while 31% say it is somewhat serious. In October 2009, 35% of people said that it was very serious and 30% said it was somewhat serious. This is astounding to see such similarities and consistency in public opinion polls a year apart from each other.

What I found most interesting in the results was that 79% of Democrats say there is solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been increasing over the past few decades, and 53% of Democrats also believe that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. Conversely, the Republican stance on the issue is much the opposite. 38% of Republicans agree that the Earth is warming and 16% of them say that it is due to human activity. 53% of Republicans sat there is no solid evidence of global warming. Again all of these results and patters are little changed from a year ago.