Can we live without oil?

Car tires, fuel and asphalt - our reliance on oil.

There are millions of different things in our daily lives that are made from oil. Chances are you are holding something right now that is made from oil. It is a fact that eventually we will run out of the gooey gold, but the real immediate concern is production. When major natural disasters occur in areas rich in oil or in areas that consume large amounts of oil (such as Japan), almost everything stops in terms of oil production/refinement and consumption. We are so dependent on oil that if we were to have an immediate  and immense enough shortage it would be all round chaos. Almost everything in our day to day lives would be greatly effected. Most things that we use today come from oil, with a major shortage all of these things would become much more expensive. Should we be so reliant on just one substance for so much in our lives?

What are we eating?

When you pick a piece of fruit up in your local supermarket can you figure out where it comes from? Probibly not, I know I can't. In most cases it is almost impossible to figure this out because in just one batch of produce the sources can vary by hundreds of kilometers. This also makes it incredibley dificult to pinpoint the single yield of one crop should it be infected. This situation gets even worse when you are dealing with liquid products such as milk. If there is a problem with one cow then you have a problem with every ounce of milk that the problem milk comes into contact with. These problems are growing, especially with mass production. Yet the public concern appears minimal.  What can we do to better monitor our food supply?

Tax on green Electricity?

Image from www.debtclock.ca

If you started a solar or wind farm in Canada the government of Canada will pay you somewhere around 60 cents per kilowatt. If you live in Canada and look at your hydro bill you will find that you are paying around 8 cents per kilowatt. This means that the government is giving money away to promote alternative energies. This frankly is not the way to save money with Canada over $558,500,000,000.00 CDN in Federal debt. You might say that they are supporting the future of energy production, but 60 cents? That means that for every kilowatt of “clean” energy you use the government is losing about 52 cents. Although this makes a great opportunity for wind and solar farmers for everybody else it is more like a tax on electricity. This might not be the best use of our tax dollars at this time.

Universes in black holes?

Hubble ultra deep field

 About 10,00 Galaxies 

A smaller area of the sky than a 1 mm-by-1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away!

 

Think of a city, its big and some have millions of people. Now think of Earth and how many cites there are ( about 2,500,000). Now think of how insignificant those cities are compared to the entire solar system. Now consider how many stars there are in the Milky Way (it had been estimated `200 to 400 billion stars). The next step is how many galaxies are there? Estimates very from 100 to 200 billion all the way to 500 billion. Take those mind blowing numbers into consideration when a new theory suggests that for every black hole there is an other entire universe on the other side. It is not yet possible to estimate the number of black holes in our universe but so far we have discovered over 70. According to this theory we could be in a black hole ourselves and that black hole could be in another one. This is certainly something to think about. 

Trusting people

Believe it or not every day you are trusting your life with probably hundreds of people. You might not realize but if you really think about it the guy driving the city bus or the air plane has your life in their hands. This first occurred to me when I was sitting under a crane that was dangling a steel beam directly over me. If, for some reason that beam dropped or the cable holding it snapped I along with about a dozen people would have been probably seriously injured or killed. You also have to consider that you have never met these people you are trusting your life with. This demonstrates how lucky you are every day trusting people.

Progress with War?

Satern V rocket

 

When you think of war you probably don't come up with very positive images. For almost everybody involved with war there are many negatives. Then again if you consider all aspects of a war there are some positives. When you look back in history you will find that without wars we would not have many of our greatest inventions. For example many of the technologies for aircraft  were invented for war by governments and are now in use today by commercial airliners. Also there are some inventions like the Jeep that would not have been even considered if it were not for WWII. The cold war has had the same effect, have a look at space exploration.  We would have been in space much later if it were not for the Space Race. Many things about war are bad and certainly out way the good thing. I think that the next time people consider how horrible the past wars have been they should also recognize everything that wars have done for us.

Why so many?

Lucy

It has been said the there are 50 million stray dogs in the USA alone. If you are getting a dog and want a purebred you might want to consider what your getting and where if came from. Remember that a mutt is referring to just another breed that has been mixed from 2 or more breeds.  This is how all dog breeds were created. Puppy mills only exist because people purchase dogs from non-reputable pet shops and private non-reputable pet dealers. If we as a society stop supporting these mills they will cease to exist. People should consider adoption, rescue centres and reputable breeders. If everybody would simply think before they get a dog than I believe many of the dog shelters in the world would not be needed.