Google.org, the philanthropic wing of the Internet search giant, and the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental research group, have teamed up to produce an intriguing map that allows users to track oil imports over time.
From Google.org’s blog:
The map highlights five eras of oil consumption, from the oil shocks of the 1970s to the price collapse in the 1980s to recent events including Hurricane Katrina and gas approaching $5 per gallon before retreating rapidly recently. (You can see these selections by clicking on the buttons below the map on the RMI Web site.) One interesting time period is from 1982 to 1985, when low prices caused oil imports from the Middle East to decline to very low levels.
The map also looks at potential oil from offshore drilling and exploration of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The screenshot below illustrates the impact of off-shore drilling. With the map zoomed or ‘drilled’ 3-5 levels down and centered near Alabama (and the map pushpin that represents offshore), check out the very thin line that shows the potential peak production of 220,000 barrels per day.The lines represent estimates of production in 20-30 years, and even with this very long timeline, the amount of oil that could be generated from offshore drilling is miniscule compared to our oil needs today.
As Kate Galbraith noted earlier today, the Rocky Mountain Institute, along with the Brookings Institution, are hosting a meeting of energy and environmental stakeholders in Washington this week, in an attempt to create a unified plan for weaning the country off of oil.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment