The Spill and its Bill

Recently we were all victims that huge cataclysm caused by humans have no limit. As long as we go on with our philosophy to be “greater and richer” despite the limited resources we have and ignoring the (must) security measures to apply to certain processes of resource exploiting icidents like this will ever happen again. What we need is to calculate the benefits, the risks and the ecological impact of our actions. As economy is driven my making money there is no space to think about precautions or similar actions. And as soon as things go well the benefit for all of us is tangible (Oil, Gas, my car runs!). But the grown competition and the consequently shrinking margins in earning money are tracking the way to strategies where conglomerates and big companies decide “in the twinkling of an eye” what to do to keep pace with competitors.

This strategy is no longer valid in a media long-term run. We the folks are partly responsible of this bloodshed global extraction companies apply to several sites on this planet, most of them in located in unique and sensitive ecosystems (see Louisiana).

I don’t know how many millions of gallons spilled into the Gulf of Mexico since the drown of Deep Water Horizon and what this means in economical impact for BP’s accounting. And the other side is how many money (if to reset all the mess might be payable by money?) is needed to clean the beaches and help out the wildlife and communities that live in the affected area. No one else than the government of the United States can be once more a forerunner to change global behavior and be more responsible to mother nature.

After the financial crack down and the bail-out ob billions of dollars, and under the scene of the oil spill disaster still to be calculated in financial and economical damage we are still not convinced to change from root (we the people) to give a chance to new approaches in living a better life now and in the future.

I think that BP will never be intentioned to pay the full amount in economical costs of the Oil Spill and I rarely believe that Washington will be able to impose a new policy to the oil industry to be more responsible. At the end the Spill-Out will be relayed to the taxpayer like we’ve seen with the financial Bail-Out. At the end it is partly blamable to the taxpayer itself because we all wanted to live a “real life” on credit and driving big cars consuming lots of gas.

A Letter to / Ein Brief an: Bangkok Post

— ENGLISH —

Dear Editor,

as a friend to Thailand I cannot do more than admire your country. You got safe from colonialism the centuries ago, as afflicted to India and your Neighbors. I recently visited your country and I know that dealing with high level “bugs” and corruption is a hard thing to do. Neither Democracy put the thing right in place as requested by the folks. I think the sole medicine to bring ease might be a co-existence of Monarchy and Democracy like they have in Great Britain.

I visited your History Museum and I am convinced that persistent freedom can only be achieved if getting together Monarchy and Democracy supporters.

Another issue might be fight corruption and nepostism (the last reigns in Italy as well as I live in Italy since 2000).

To round off this letter, I am confident that the Thai people will choose the right way to do…

— DEUTSCH —

An den Redakteur,

als Freund Thailands kann ich nicht mehr machen als ihr Land zu bewundern. Ihr wurdet kein Opfer des Kolonialismus in den letzten Jahrhunderten so wie es Indien und anderen Nachbarstaaten ergangen ist. Ich bin kürzlich in Thailand gewesen und ich weiß das es hart ist mit hochrangigen Geschäftemachern und Korruption umzugehen. Nicht einmal Demokratie ist in der Lage die Sache in der Hinsicht zu lösen wie das Volk es sich wünscht. Ich glaube das die einzige Medizin um diese Situation zu meistern eine Koexistenz von Demokratie und Monarchie wäre wie sie in Großbritannien angewandt wird.

Ich habe eurer Geschichtsmuseum besucht und bin der Überzeugung das langfristige Stabilität nur dann Erfolg haben wird wenn das Zusammenspiel zwischen Monarchie und Demokratie Anhängern funktioniert.

Eine andere Sache sind Korruption und Vetternwirtschaft (letzteres regiert auch in Italien wo ich seit 2000 lebe).

Um die Sache zu Ende zu bringen; ich vertraue den Thailändischen Bürgern dass sie den richtigen Weg wählen.

US Presidentials 2008:Should We Race Due To The Race?

Newsweek has spotted out an interesting argument. The race of the Presidential Candidates. Would America be ready to accept a dark President? A question nearly never mentioned by US media. I say may the best win the price. Reducing this campaign into a “Black or White” issue might be the same as returning to the Apartheid in South Africa. It would be a strong signal to the world if the US would accept a dark President. Many changes started in US and spread into other Western countries. So may America once again
be the “Leader” in exploring new areas…

Story: http://www.newsweek.com/id/133790

Nuclear Power Debate in Italy / Dibattito sul Nucleare in Italia

E N G L I S H
Nuclear power, haven’t we it always in our power lines?

The debate about nuclear power plants popped up recently has it’s not quite little bit of “embarrassment” tagged. How many Italians know that 15% of the energy needed to run Italy must be imported from neighbor countries like France, Switzerland and Slovenia? And tell me who doesn’t know that there are tenths of active nuclear plants situated around Italy? Why all this confusion and embarrassment? A small part of the energy we use every day is produced by nuclear facilities anyway. And we have been always more prosperous and prodigy with energy consumption. We lament on high energy bills, on Black Outs and other. Can You tell me the percentage of the Italians who honestly apply to the citizen’s energy saving behaviors known as “simple advices”? You see, this situation is not easy. We banned nuclear power from our territory, but a small amount of the power that we use at home is indelibly tagged “Nuclear Made”. So what should we do?

There are different ways to solve the issue: from solar energy to geo-thermical plants, from Wind power to nuclear plants. Life is a continuously strike the balance between the one and the other. The ideal solution doesn’t exist. I suppose to set up a nice mix of all energy producing technologies now available. But we should prefer renewable energy solutions and use a “integration quota” of fossil and nuclear energy in the mix. The ground to decide should be reducing global warming.

I T A L I A N
Il Nucleare, ma non l’abbiamo da sempre nella lampadina?

Il riacceso dibattito sull’utilizzo del nucleare ha qualcosa di non poco “imbarazzante”. Quanti Italiani sanno che il 15% del fabbisogno energetico del nostro paese deve essere importato dai paesi confinanti come la Francia, la Svizzera e la Slovenia? E chi non sa che intorno allo stivale ci sono decine di reattori nucleari in azione? Perché tanta confusione ed imbarazzo. Una parte dell’energia che utilizziamo è comunque di origine nucleare. Poi siamo diventati sempre più “prosperi” e “generosi” con l’energia. Ci lamentiamo del costo alto, dei Black Out ed altro. Quant’è grande la percentuale degli Italiani che si dedicano davvero al risparmio energetico “cittadino” seguendo i consigli semplici? Vedete che questa situazione non è semplice. Abbiamo denuclearizzato i nostro territori, ma la corrente che arriva in casa nostra è costituita indelebilmente di una quota nucleare. Allora ragazzi, cosa facciamo?

Esistono diverse soluzioni: dal solare al geotermico, dall’eolico al nucleare. La vita è un compromesso continuo, la soluzione ideale non esiste. Suppongo piuttosto un bel mix di tutte le tecnologie oggi disponibili per la produzione di energia elettrica con un focus maggiore sulle fonti rinnovabili ma con una “quota di integrazione” del nucleare e fossile. La base delle scelte deve essere però la riduzione del gas serra.

Andreas Ahlen
mysay@inbox.com


Click here for copyright permissions!


Copyright 2008 Andreas Ahlen