| Carbon Storage Comes to Disused Texas Oil Fields
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A short distance from Spindletop oil field, the site of the gusher that triggered the Texas oil rush more than a century ago, scientists have found a purpose for the long-disused underground reservoirs -- as storage for the pollution emitted by burning fossil fuels.
In the depleted South Liberty oil field near the town of Dayton, a University of Texas team successfully pumped 1,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide -- the principal greenhouse gas -- into the reservoirs of briny water more than 5,000 feet underground.
Scientists say those porous rock formations, which extend for hundreds of miles from Mexico to Alabama, could be ideally suited to storing the greenhouse gases widely blamed for global warming. |
I think the concept is sound. It puts carbon back from whence it came. In fact I've always been of the mind that much of our man-made wastes that we put into landfills which seem to be toxic are only "toxic" in their current form in the place that we bury them. Ultimately everything on this earth is made of stuff FROM this earth and if properly deconstituted could be render quite harmless once again. Maybe 5,000 feet isn't all that deep when it comes to hiding our skeletons?
At any rate, the other thing that prompted me to post this article was the small passage in bold at the bottom of the quotation. It drives me up the wall when the media does this sort of presentation of factual information. Some "theories" are more than theories. They're just, plain accepted facts now. Take gravity. Take the Earth's spherical shape. What was once a theory is now a fact. The shape of the Earth and the presence of gravity are tangible things whose presence can be verified beyond any reasonable doubt.
In that same light, it has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that carbon dioxide is in fact the most significant greenhouse gas and is in fact the single greatest contributor to global warming. NOTHING contends this. So WHY does mainstream media feel so compelled to distance themselves from matters so standoffishly with statements like the above where carbon dioxide is "blamed" for global warming as if carbon dioxide is someday going to be let off the hook because somebody discovers it's been methane from flatulation doing it all along? This sort of reporting is done ALL the time, and not just in topics related to earch sciences and other contentious issues. It just makes it clear how spineless they are, completely unwilling to make statements that they'll have to stand behind or be defensive of at a later time. | |
