Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Tainter, Joseph A.

Title Drilling down : the Gulf Oil debacle and our energy dilemma / Joseph A. Tainter, Tadeusz W. Patzek
Published New York, NY : Copernicus Books, ©2012

Copies

Description 1 online resource (ix, 242 pages) : illustrations (some color), color map
Contents Introduction -- The significance of oil in the Gulf of Mexico -- The energy that runs the world -- Offshore drilling and production, a short history -- The energy-complexity spiral -- The benefits and costs of complexity -- What happened at the Macondo Well -- Why the Gulf disaster happened -- Our energy and complexity dilemma: prospects for the future -- Appendix A. Glossary -- Appendix B. Offshore Production -- Appendix C. Operating an offshore platform -- About the authors -- Index
Summary For more than a century, oil has been the engine of growth for a society that delivers an unprecedented standard of living to many. We now take for granted that economic growth is good, necessary, and even inevitable, but also feel a sense of unease about the simultaneous growth of complexity in the processes and institutions that generate and manage that growth. As societies grow more complex through the bounty of cheap energy, they also confront problems that seem to increase in number and severity. In this era of fossil fuels, cheap energy and increasing complexity have been in a mutually-reinforcing spiral. The more energy we have and the more problems our societies confront, the more we grow complex and require still more energy. How did our demand for energy, our technological prowess, the resulting need for complex problem solving, and the end of easy oil conspire to make the Deepwater Horizon oil spill increasingly likely, if not inevitable? This book explains the real causal factors leading up to the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, a disaster from which it will take decades to recover
Analysis biofysica
biophysics
operationeel onderzoek
operations research
duurzame ontwikkeling
sustainable development
milieubeheer
environmental management
energy economics
milieu
environment
energiebeleid
energy policy
oil and gas industry
Environmental Sciences (General)
Milieuwetenschappen (algemeen)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject BP Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill, 2010.
Oil spills -- Mexico, Gulf of.
Drilling platforms -- Accidents -- Mexico, Gulf of.
Offshore oil industry -- Mexico, Gulf of
Energy policy -- United States
Petroleum industry and trade.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Infrastructure.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
Drilling platforms -- Accidents
Energy policy
Offshore oil industry
Oil spills
Petroleum industry and trade
Gulf of Mexico
United States
Form Electronic book
Author Patzek, Tadeusz W.
ISBN 9781441976772
1441976779