Comments on: Normal Accidents? http://climateinc.org/2010/07/normal-accidents/ The Business of Stopping Climate Change Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:40:24 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Anthony Posner http://climateinc.org/2010/07/normal-accidents/comment-page-1/#comment-302 Anthony Posner Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:45:03 +0000 http://climateinc.org/?p=561#comment-302 Prof Levy, Oil is the drug that modern man is addicted to. The question arises whether he can come off it. You seem to be advocating that the dosage should be reduced. However, I have my doubts whether that really is possible. Let's face it, we are all Oil Junkies. My guess is that our reliance on it will increase, leading to an impossible cycle of boom and bust, as the price for it goes up and down. There is, unfortuanately, no way out of this dilemma. A bit of sunshine (solar energy) will not, for the forseeable future at least, solve this problem. (Btw there is also appalling oil pollution off the coast of Nigeria. And hardly anybody says a word about it.) Prof Levy,
Oil is the drug that modern man is addicted to. The question arises whether he can come off it. You seem to be advocating that the dosage should be reduced. However, I have my doubts whether that really is possible. Let’s face it, we are all Oil Junkies. My guess is that our reliance on it will increase, leading to an impossible cycle of boom and bust, as the price for it goes up and down. There is, unfortuanately, no way out of this dilemma. A bit of sunshine (solar energy) will not, for the forseeable future at least, solve this
problem.

(Btw there is also appalling oil pollution off the coast of Nigeria. And hardly anybody says a word about it.)

]]> By: Anthony Posner http://climateinc.org/2010/07/normal-accidents/comment-page-1/#comment-301 Anthony Posner Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:02:36 +0000 http://climateinc.org/?p=561#comment-301 Prof Levy, The real issue, from a business management perspective, was the determination by BP amangement to make massive short-term profits. As a result, they fired their own engineers and did everything to pump oil quickly. Safety was the last thing on their minds, as it implied greater costs and smaller profits. The question that you should be asking yourself is how capitalism can solve this dilemma, especially when directors are often employed on profits related bonuses. Prof Levy,

The real issue, from a business management perspective, was the determination by BP amangement to make massive short-term profits. As a result, they fired their own engineers and did everything to pump oil quickly. Safety was the last thing on their minds, as it implied greater costs and smaller profits.

The question that you should be asking yourself is how capitalism can solve this dilemma, especially when directors are often employed on profits related bonuses.

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