Unite Union headquarters in Auckland.

strike is to join conciliation talks and it could be called for after Easter if those broke down.

The government said Unite should withdraw the threat of a strike but welcomes the announcement. The sales of fuel this week has risen significantly after the government warnings to motorists.

A woman in York suffered 40% burns on Thursday when petrol ignited while she was decanting it in her kitchen.

It was announced by the Union on Friday morning that there would be no Easter strike.

Assistant general secretary Diana Holland said in a statement: “We do still retain the right to call strike action for Easter should those talks break down.”

A spokesman of Downing Street responded: “It’s obviously good news that people are not going to have their bank holiday ruined. But it’s time Unite withdraw their totally unacceptable strike threat.”

Unite union’s 2,000 or so members are at the centre of the dispute who also sullies some 90% of UK forecourts.

The drivers of Unite whom deliver fuel to Shell and Esso garages and supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco have called for minimum working conditions covering holiday, hours, redundancy and pay.

Following the announcement from Unite, Acas (a conciliation service) said it would be meeting up with the employers involved the Monday dispute and it also hopes the formal talks also involving the union could start ASAP.

What is going on! Why are gas prices so high? Will we ever get a break? The sad thing is it’s only going to get worse. Sure the majority of the world will be ok, but what about the poor people? I’m not talking middle class people that think they are poor, I’m talking really poor. I think anyone that makes less than $12,000.00 a year should be considered poor. I know; I am now one of those people. This is my story.

The transportation sector accounts for the largest share of energy consumption particularly the bio fuels and hydrocarbons including natural gas which are extracted from the land and deep sea exploration. Transportation of extracted fuels is also an important issue as well as extraction of hydrocarbons from their respective sources.

The share of petroleum use in the United States has risen from 52 percent in 1970 to 66 percent in 1995 and it is expected to increase to 70 percent by 2011. The International Energy association predicts that 59 percent of the 41-million barrels per day increase in worldwide oil demand expected from 1995 to 2020 will come from petroleum products.

Energy policy is derived from security, economic and environmental goals and it is difficult to chart an energy policy path that is coherent and on consensus can be achieved. It is dependent on the ability of the market, prices, demand and availability. Particular emphasis is required to be placed on infrastructure and volatility issues that are related to the governmental and their solutions. Actions required by the government include:

1.      Focus on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

2.      Energy and environmental policy that includes specific attention to carbon dioxide and incentives for reducing emissions.

3.      Environmental impacts due to extraction from newer sources and displacement of forest land and ecologically sensitive areas.

4.      Handling and avoiding of repetition of major environmental disasters like the Exxon and BP oil spill.

5.      Legislations to demarcate boundaries between federal and state jurisdictions over environmental matters.

6.      Use of alternative sources of energy which have a mild impact on the environment like solar power and wind power.

7.      Environmentally friendly standards within the electric power sector.

8.      Improving efficiency of power plants dependent on bio fuels and production of energy efficient vehicles.

9.      Support for research based activities on energy use.

10.  Providing incentives for fuel efficiency and subsidies where there is substantial saving of energy and technological advancements.

11.  Rebates in taxes and duties for manufacture and use of energy efficient products.

The purpose of such activities will establish a consistent and efficient reliability regime applicable to everyone and efficiency has a critical role in balancing supply and demand and reducing energy demands. Increased federal support of research and development related to energy and environmental technologies on both the demand and supply sides in order will help to sustain a stable economic environment for energy, to accommodate economic growth and to meet environmental objectives. The use of technology is critical to energy development in the past and will continue to be so in the future.

Between 1973 and 1986, the U.S. economy’s  energy intensity (energy consumption per dollar of GDP) declined by 35 percent; since then, the rate  of decline slowed dramatically, amounting to only about 15 percent over the period. That slowdown raises total national energy costs by about $100 billion per year.

Technologies are in hand to once again accelerate energy efficiency and associated environmental gains significantly. To realize this in a timely way requires that integrated fiscal, regulatory and technology policies be implemented by the administration and Congress.

Efficiency has increased in the  transportation  sector where average miles per gallon (mpg) for standard automobiles has increased from 15.1 in 1983 to about 21.5 in 1999, However, the potential to do much more is an attainable option. The average fuel economy of light trucks on the road is only 17.4 to 18mpg.

Ford and General Motors have vowed to improve fuel economy on certain SUVs by 25 percent by 2005, but across-the-board implementation of higher mileage standards for light trucks could substantially lower oil use in the United States. SUVs account for 25 percent of the category of light trucks, up from 13.2 percent of all light trucks in 1992, yielding an average annual growth rate of 14 percent.

The share of natural gas rose from 18.2 percent in 1973 to 24 percent in 1999. Nuclear power is an indigenous source of energy, unique in having the capacity to provide enough energy to last hundreds of years without emitting greenhouse gasses Nuclear energy represents 22.9 percent of total U.S. electricity generation and is expected to fall as older plants are retired and as new construction is thwarted by social concerns and by regulatory issues as well as waste disposal obstacles.

Also in the 1970s and early 1980s, companies began investing in renewable technologies, but as oil prices began to fall in the mid-1980s and some investors in renewable projects failed to turn a profit, this trend also slowed. Renewable energy sources, including biomass, solar, wind and hydro, now represent less than 10 percent of total U.S. energy use. Technological advances that have led to cost reductions in some fuels such as solar and wind represents an area for expanded attention. But hydro is the dominant renewable resources and has minimal expansion potential in the United States. 

Environmental factors have also led to a decrease in the share of coal in the U.S. energy mix from 30 percent in 1973 to 23 percent currently, despite the fact that the United States has among the largest coal deposits in the world. Still, more than 50 percent of all electricity generated in the United States is fueled by coal. Internationally, coal use is expected to double in the next fifteen years. Despite governmental and industry efforts to foster clean coal technologies, coal’s high carbon base has made it a subject of attack by environmental concerns.

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro,

Marshall Islands, and leased to BP plc until 2013.

In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of 35,050 ft in the Tiber field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles southeast of Houston in 4,132 feet of water.

On April 20, 2010, when drilling at the Macondo Prospect, an explosion on the rig caused by a blowout killed eleven crewmen and ignited a fireball whose flames were visible from 35 miles. The resulting fire could not be extinguished and, on April 22, 2010, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea floor and causing the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill) in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. Some estimates have already placed it as among the largest oil spills in history with hundreds of millions of gallons spilled to date. The gusher was estimated to be flowing at 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

For comparison, this is equal to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, every one to two weeks. The resulting oil slick covers at least 2,500 square miles. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of oil not visible at the surface.

The Deepwater Horizon accident was a Project Failure of immense proportions. The resulting environmental disaster is widely affecting life below and above the sea throughout the region, seriously damaging coastal wetlands and wildlife, and has negatively affecting fishing, tourism and many other industries in those US states.

The lives of nearly all residents of the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and several US states has been seriously affected. In addition, the inability of BP to stop the flow, communication blunders by BP management, negative media accounts and continuing coverage resulted in serious negative consequences for BP, subcontractors on the project and the oil exploration industry as a whole. The US federal government was also been criticized for slow and weak response to the disaster.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when

Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters. The Valdez spill was the largest ever in U.S. waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume released.

However, Prince William Sound’s remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, and boat made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field eventually covered 1,300 miles of coastline and 11,000 square miles of ocean.

The public remained supportive of Exxon, the oil industry and trans-shipments of oil and gas. In response to the spill, the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The legislation included a clause that prohibits any vessel that, after March 22, 1989, has caused an oil spill of more than 1 million US gallons (3,800 m3) in any marine area, from operating in Prince William Sound. The BP disaster is bigger and more serious than the Valdez accident; public reaction is also dramatically greater.

Risk management plans were inadequate, BP was not prepared for the accident, project management mistakes were made during drilling and communication mistakes were made by BP executives following the accident.

Environmental Protection is becoming more important and the American public has been deeply divided in recent years regarding climate change and the environment, the Deepwater

Horizon oil spill and its environmental impact on the Gulf of Mexico have singly changed attitudes.

In the Exxon Valdes tanker spill of 1989, Congress responded with the 1990 Oil. Pollution Act, assigning the liability for cleanup costs, to companies responsible for major spills and also required thicker oil tanker hulls. And while the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in a far greater body of water, it’s also much closer to densely populated areas.

That’s why this spill is sure to prompt new safety, oversight and liability regulations for offshore oil drilling and has already undercut Obama’s proposal for expanding that industry. Our reliance on old, fossil-fuel based technologies is devastating for the planet, for society, and for business. This spill is in many ways an expected result of the path we have chosen.

Given the declining stocks of easy access oil, our addiction is forcing us to dig up extremely remote oil something very hard to do that comes with enormous complexity and myriad risks of catastrophic failure.

The assumption that we will continue to dig up more carbon-emitting fossil fuels may be called into question in a serious way by the Gulf oil spill. Governments may very well ask for companies to invest far more in safety. It’s a reasonable outcome that regulators demand that companies invest not only in the technologies to dig oil up, but also in cutting edge ways to greatly reduce the risk of it going all over the place.

References

Rushefsky, Mark E. (2002). Public Policy in the United States at the Dawn of the Twenty first Century. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.IBN 978-0765616630

Instrument Mixes for Environmental Policy” (Paris: OECD Publications, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/learning/exxon.htm

http://blogs.hbr.org/winston/2010/06/the-bp-oil-spill-top-5-lessons.html

PM World Today – July 2010 (Vol XII, Issue VII Mimi, H. 2010, June 16. Apologetic BP pledges $20B. USA Today, Retrieved June 21, 2010 from http://www.usatoday.com/).

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/politics/The-Spill-Seekers.html

http://byliner.com/rowan-jacobsen/stories/the-spill-seekers

The Spill Seekers, by Rowan Jacobsen

Aircraft carrier needs electricity on larger scale to run its machinery. There is installed a ghostly Air-condition system that keeps the crew and equipments safe from heat. There is also a desalination plant that treats half million gallon water daily and there is also a big refrigeration system. This Ship keeps food which is enough for 6 thousands people for 70 days.

The purpose of all this technology is the creation of floating Airport. The flight deck covers about 4.5 acres. Underneath is a vast hanger where 100 Aircrafts can be parked. There are four ghostly lifts to shift Aircrafts from hanger to the deck. The single lift of this ship can lift around 150,000 pounds weight.

For such a large ship, certainly it needs fuel on larger scale and the same amount of space is required to keep this fuel too. Therefore, the American’s Aircraft Carriers use nuclear reactors. These reactors keep as much fuel in a smaller space that can run this ship for a decade. These reactors create steam that is run by different steam turbines. These turbines also run electric generators that provide electricity to remaining parts of the ship.

If we talk about the runway of an Aircraft Carrier, it is comparatively smaller than normal land runways. That’s why it takes support of the complex technology to overcome this lacking. When an Aircraft starts engines to take flight from the flight deck, the crew joins the steam power catapult to the front wheels of an Aircraft and as soon as the Aircraft engines pick thrust, the crew runs the shooter of the catapult. Due to which the big Aircraft gets the speed of 165 miles per hour in a distance of 300 feet. All this procedure takes only two seconds time and an Aircraft reaches the air. A new Aircraft can fly from the Aircraft Carrier after every twenty five seconds.

When landing turn comes the mentioned technology fixes the enormous cable in the hook of the Aircraft’s tail, which compels the plane to stop within 300 feet. And if cable doesn’t fixes in the hook the Aircraft takes flight again.

The above mentioned all the Aircrafts need fuel. An Aircraft carries keeps three million gallons fuel while journeying, but it is still short, therefore, Aircraft carrier never travels alone, but other smaller ships also travels with it, which is called sea fleet. This sea fleet contains Guided Missile, Cruise, two destroyer, two submarines and one frigate.

The American Aircraft carriers are of stunning capabilities. Likewise following America other countries of the world have also tried to make their sea fleets. Britain is trying to make many sea fleets, which will be operational till 2017. Russia has planned to make twelve sea fleets. China and India are also desirous of making sea fleets. It seems that in the next decade many sea fleets will be seen floating in the sea, which will change the shape of the sea altogether.

By Muhammad Irfan Zafar

Content Writer

Carbon monoxide has no smell, taste or colour.  This makes it hard to detect and also means that it is easy to inhale without realising you are doing so.

Carbon monoxide is made when fuels such as oil, gas, wood and coal fail to burn fully.  The oxygen in the room is gradually used up and replaced with carbon dioxide when a fire burns in an enclosed room.  After a build-up of carbon dioxide in the air, the fuel is stopped from fully burning and it begins to release carbon monoxide.

Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
The most common symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning is a headache.  Other common symptoms are:

nausea and dizziness
tiredness and confusion
stomach pain and being sick
difficulty breathing and shortness of breath

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be similar to those of flu and food poisoning.  However, it does not cause a fever, unlike flu.

You might notice that your symptoms are not as bad at times when you are away from the source of the carbon monoxide.

Your symptoms will get worse the longer your breathe in carbon monoxide gas.  You might lose your vision, balance and memory and eventually you may lose consciousness.  If there is a lot of carbon monoxide in the air, this can happen within two hours.  However, sometimes the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can happen a number of days or even months after breathing in the carbon monoxide.

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning  which develop later include:

memory loss
confusion
c-ordination problems

The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be a lot more severe if you have breathed in high levels of carbon monoxide and can include:

vertigo – the sensation that you or the environment around you, are spinning
intoxication – the effects of poisoning, e.g. an impaired mental state and changes to personality
breathlessness and tachycardia – a heart rate or over 100 beats a minute
ataxia – a loss of physical co-ordination caused by underlying damage to the nervous system and brain
chest pain due to heart attack or angina
seizures- muscle twitches, tongue biting and total body shaking caused by an uncontrollable burst of electrical activity in the brain
loss of consciousness – death may occur within a few minutes in cases where there ate very high levels of carbon monoxide

Causes of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Gas, oil wood and coal are fuel sources which many household appliances use:

gas fires
open fires
boilers
central heating systems
water heaters
cookers

Carbon monoxide gas is produced if the fuel in these appliance fails to burn fully.  Running cars, burning charcoal and smoking cigarettes also causes the production of carbon monoxide gas.

Here the main causes of carbon monoxide poisoning are outlined.

Poorly Installed or Maintained Appliances
The main causes of accidental exposure to carbon monoxide are incorrectly installed and badly maintained household appliances, such as heating and cooking devices.

Household appliances should produce very little carbon monoxide gas provided that they are fitted correctly, used safely and well maintained. 

Blocked Flues and Chimneys
Another potential cause of carbon monoxide poisoning are blocked flues and chimneys because they can prevent carbon monoxide gas from escaping and therefore allow it to build up to dangerous levels in a room.

Enclosed or Unventilated Spaces
The risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is increased by burning fuel in an enclosed or unventilated space, where there are no air vents, windows or doors left open or ajar.  Examples of these would be a car engine which is left running inside a garage or a faulty heating boiler in a poorly ventilated kitchen. 

Paint Fumes
Fumes from paint removers and cleaning fluids which contain methylene chloride can also cause carbon monoxide poisoning.  Methylene chloride is converted into carbon monoxide when it is inhaled.

Diagnosis of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning can be done by you GP based on a combination of your physical symptoms and the environment around you.

A blood sample will be taken if you have the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Your blood will be checked for carboxyhaemoglobin and if there is a level of 30%, this indicates severe exposure.

An electrocardiogram (ECG) might also be done to check how well you heart is pumping blood around your body.

It is important that you are aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and that you look out for the warning signs.

As well as the symptoms explained earlier, the following situations may also be signs of carbon monoxide poisoning:

other people in your house, flat, workplace etc have similar symptoms
your symptoms go away when you go away on holiday and come back when you return
your symptoms tend to be seasonal, e.g. you have more headaches in the winter time when the central heating is used more often.

Other possible signs to look out for are:

sooty marks on the wall around stoves, boilers or fires
sooty marks on the front cover of gas fires
smoke building up in rooms due to faulty flues
yellow rather than blue flames coming from gas appliances

If you or anyone else in your home or workplace develops flu-like symptoms with no temperature and you think it may be linked to a carbon monoxide leak you should:

stop using all the cooking and heating appliances which use fuel rather than electricity
open all of the windows
call the Health and Safety Executive Gas Safety Advice Line for advice.  0800 300 363
visit your GP as soon as you can

If you have a carbon monoxide leak you should make sure that a suitable qualified engineer inspects your cooking appliances and central heating and water appliances.

Treatment for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
If you think that you have carbon monoxide poisoning you should move away from the possible source of the gas so your symptoms can be assessed.

You should consult your GP straightaway.  You will probably not need to go to hospital if you have mild poisoning but it is still important that you seek medical advice.

You will be treated in hospital if you have been exposed to a high amount of carbon monoxide poisoning and given 100% oxygen through a tight fitting mask.  Breathing in concentrated oxygen allows your body to replace carboxyhaemoglobin more quickly.  You will carry on oxygen therapy until the levels of carboxyhaemoglobin decrease to a level below 10%.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a treatment which floods the body with pure oxygen and helps it to overcome the oxygen shortage that carbon monoxide poisoning causes.

Currently there is insufficient evidence with regards to the long-term effectiveness of HBOT for treating severe cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Therefore, standard oxygen therapy is typically the treatment option.

In certain situations however, HBOT might be recommended.  It may be used in cases of extensive carbon monoxide exposure and if there is suspected nerve damage.  The decision to carry out this treatment is decided on a case by case basis.

The approval of the miserable eighteen thousand naira minimum wage at the tail-end of last year was seen by many observers as elections gimmick, as many of the governors were then seeking re-elections. It is not suprising, now that elections have been put behind us, that the elected governors are coming out in their full colours and force, to renege from the approved minimum wage issue. Most annoying is the dragging in of the removal of fuel subsidy as the pre-requisite for granting workers the minimum wage. Removal of fuel subsidy had been the most sensitive and a sore point of workers ‘agitation all through ages. Governor Amechi of Rivers state’s pronouncement on the removal of oil subsidy, before the governors can implement minimum wage of eighteen thousand naira is intriguing. This shows that the governor who was made a governor, courtesy of court’s decision in his first term has so quickly forgotten the finger that has fed, and is still feeding him. In his weekly Television programme, “The giant stride”, which he show-cases to sing his own praises, the workers lay the golden eggs. Neither Amechi nor any other governor can lay claims to any achievement without riding on the backs of the impoverished workers.

The hunger-stricken Nigerian workers have been made so miserable by the Nigerian political class (including the governors) so much so, that for them, to die will become a better option, than living on wages which can barely keep their body and soul together. As the political class publicly flaunts their ill-gotten wealth on the workers’ faces, so also they oppress the workers with heavily tinted state-of-the- art jeep cars and superbly constructed mansions, which they call houses. This is why people do or die for elections in Nigeria. It is the only way in which some abjectly poor individuals from poverty-shriken homes can be shot into undeserved wealth overnight. It is unfortunate that when the political class including the Nigerian governors, get into such positions, they forget the workers who in all their years, consistently labour to keep the economy of the country above water. What do the workers receive in return? Mere pittance and threats of sack by political thugs who happen to find themselves in the positions of governance.

In my article “Governors’ Forum: To be or not To be” dated 10th of November 2010, and published by Triond online, I challenged the governors to publish their own salaries, allowances to wives, children, housing, cars, touring, sleeping, personal assistants and other monetized and non monetized benefits they fraudulently add to their portfolios. These are the people, who shamelessly claim that the miserable eighteen thousand naira minimum wage per worker in this country is too high for them to pay. If they cut down drastically, their various allowances, elephant projects and wild goose chase, and stop playing to the gallery about phony achievements, they will have enough to pay the minimum wage for the minimum Nigerian worker.

I must give kudos to Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomole of Edo state who, though, a member of the discredited so-called “Governors’ Forum” said that each governor has enough money to be able to pay the minimum wage to workers. He has been a worker and he truly knows the pains of the Nigerian workers in a competitive market-place like ours. Let us face facts. All the governors go to Abuja every month to share the nation’s wealth. As at November 2010, when the usual sharing was done, Akwa Ibom state got the highest; taking home one hundred and four billion naira, while Ekiti and few other states took lowest shares amounting to sixteen billion naira each. At that, no state governor can pretend that he will not be able to pay a pittance of mere eighteen thousand naira to the workers who are really the labourers for the nation – the goose that lays the golden eggs which the governors swallow with reckless abandon. How many roads do governors build in a month with the minimum share of sixteen billion naira?. How much electrification, rural or urban, do they establish in a month with the minimum share of sixteen billion naira? How many villages, towns, and cities, do the governors give pipe-borne water with the minimum share of sixteen billion naira every month that they cannot pay the minimum wage to workers? How many schools, hospitals, social security services and other welfare developments do the governor give to the people monthly with the minimum share of sixteen billion naira each of them receive monthly? Who is fooling who? Stop deceiving the people and toying with workers’ future.

If Nigerian governors are not ready to pay the minimum wage of eighteen thousand naira they should be ready for maximum chaos from workers. Their “no work, no pay” intrigues cannot help matters. Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomole was in it, and he has rightly given his colleagues a warning early enough. You can pay the maximum wage, go ahead paying it.

The Nigerian workers have given the nation a two-week notice for nation-wide industrial action. Be pro-active and do not allow the action to commence, so that the poor suffering masses may not be put in an untold hardship. Think of when electricity will be shut down, when schools and hospitals close down, when banks down-tools, when markets are unreachable, when public transportation is cut, and the entire country is at a stand still. The governors will board the next available flight and take a holiday in the luxuries of the western world and Asia. Who suffers? “The people”. These are “the people” the governors claim to govern. The two- week notice given by the workers for a nation wide industrial action is more than enough for any well meaning leader with human-face to think wisely and retract his steps in order to avert anarchy and chaos in the entire nation. The masses are not happy about the situation in the country and it is my fervent prayer that our leaders can read the hand-writing on the wall all over the world, and avoid any situation that can trigger off crisis.

In his lack-luster and unimpressive speech, Governor Amechi of Rivers state speaking for “Governors’ Forum” after its meeting, advocated for the removal of fuel subsidy before he can pay the minimum wage of a mere eighteen thousand naira. This, I consider neither brilliant nor thoughtful. Governor Amechi is not a stranger in this country. He knows how much chaos, the question of fuel increase has caused this country, even during the time when Adams Oshiomole was NLC’s President. I wonder if Oshiomole was at that meeting . Do the governors realize that removing fuel subsidy will increase the prices of fuel and other allied products,that a litre of kerosene may jump to three hundred naira, a price too high for my mother in the village and the numerous other Nigerians to pay? Have they given the masses minimum wage? Instead they have, by their selfish action imposed maximum sufferings on Nigerian masses. One cannot really place the connection between minimum wage and the removal of fuel subsidy which is a very serious issue in Nigeria. All that our governors need to do is to lay pressure on the Federal Government and other stakeholders to seriously think of how our existing refineries can work, if possible build more, so that fuel and allied products can be made available all the year round and even export same. It is only a foolish and stupid farmer who will sell out all his yams, and then spend so much money in buying pounded yam from his neighbors to feed his family. That is the situation with Nigeria which export all her crude oil, only to turn around and import the finished product at very high costs. Should the workers suffer because of the unthoughtfulness and inefficiency of government? The truth about the matter is that there is a powerful cartel within the government circle both States and Federal which have vowed never to see the refineries and electricity work in Nigeria because of what they benefit from sabotaging them. This is true, and the people concern know it. Pump the whole nation’s budget of over four trillion naira into electricity and refineries alone they will never work, and we will be in the same position of ever complaining, and like Fela Anikulapo Kuti of blessed memory has said, “suffering and smiling”, we will be suffering and smiling. Governor Amechi and his likes should not touch the nation’s sore spot in order not to trigger off unquenchable fire and chaos in the country. The governors can pay the eighteen thousand naira minimum wage, and they should go ahead doing just that so that they can nip-in-the-bud the intending national industrial action. If with the billions of naira the governors share from the Federation account every month, and they still insist that they cannot pay the workers’ eighteen thousand naira minimum wage, then, they can all resign and pack out of government houses. Professor Atahiru Jega the Independent National Electoral Commission boss should be instructed to conduct by-elections for the vacant governorship positions. The Nigeria governors should not drag the poor masses into an untold suffering of having to face a national industrial action from workers.

Pat Asakome, a broadcaster, an author and an analyst in public affairs, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

Oil

All our major fuels – oil, natural gas, and coal – obtained their energy from sunlight, absorbed long ago by the plants and marine organisms from which the fuels were formed.

Over millions of years, as these organisms were buried and turned to fuel, the energy became highly concentrated in the form of carbon.

There are 100,000 million million million joules of energy in the world’s known oil reserves.  That’s 1 followed by 23 zeroes.

There is enough energy in a standard barrel of oil to boil 6,600 gallons of water.  That’s a really big cup of coffee!

Universal Energy

The amount of energy in the Universe, measured in joules, is 4000 million million million million million million million million million million million,   That’s 4 followed by 69 zeroes.  Makes you tired just thinking about all that energy.

Heat Energy

Your muscles turn some of the energy in your food into heat energy.  This is why your body gives off the heat of 10 light bulbs when you go running.

Have you ever seen manure steaming?  This happens because there are millions of microbes inside it.  The microbes turn its energy into heat, which boils out moisture.

How much energy?

Energy is measured in joules.  One joule gives enough energy to lift an orange by 3 feet.

Energy is never created or destroyed.  It only changes from one form to another.

The amount of energy in the Universe that is in the form of heat is increasing, however.  So the whole Universe is warming up, not just our planet Earth.

A large egg contains about 400,000 joules of energy.  But when people talk about the energy in food, they like to talk in thousands of joules, or kilojoules.  An egg contains about 400 kilojoules.

Food Fuel

Our energy comes from food, especially sugary and starchy foods, such as pasta, which contain a large proportion of energy-rich chemicals called carbohydrates.

Your body uses energy all the time – even when you’re sitting still.  You get through almost an egg’s worth of energy just watching television for an hour.

Seven hours of hard physical work uses about 10 eggs’ worth of energy.

Is this a true supply and demand of the question? It is true that China’s booming economy will consume large amounts of natural resources like oil, but America remains the world’s largest consumer of oil and related products.

Image via Wikipedia

The peak of oil consumption in the U.S. is in winter, with oil being used for heating and in recent years have seen large increases in the price of oil at this time. 

There are masses of these types of oil reserves around the world are only now being seriously considered as a viable resource.

As supply is limited by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) price can be somewhat regulated by the amount of oil left in the market. Since oil is a finite resource that might be inclined to believe that oil will run out in the near future, but the reality is, as the price of oil increases, the cost of oil recovery from remote locations, increasingly inhospitable viable.

In Alaska, for example, there are vast fields of oil deposited on the sand under the earth. This oil, once considered worthless is beginning to be extracted from the sand and be a resource that will last well into the millennium. 

As a result of our urgent need of oil now the biggest problem facing the world in history, global warming. 

The greenhouse effect can be seen on another planet, Venus. Venus can reach 480C, as a result of greenhouse gases and the life course at these temperatures humans is not possible.

Caused by excessively high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, global warming is a direct result of burning fossil fuels like oil. As gas levels to build the sun produces heat is trapped in the atmosphere worlds rather than be able to dissipate into space. Hence the name greenhouse. 

Unless we can reduce our consumption and dependence Osam Wolfe has been playing bingo online for 6 years and have tried all bingo sites at that time. Now advises the online bingo halls and advises on aspects of player satisfaction. It is highly recommended as excellent http://www.buzoo.co.uk http://www.pk0.org and resources for online bingo. 
No oil, coal and other fossil fuels, the risk of heating our planet to a level where sea level rise as a result of melting ice caps, the displacement of hundreds of millions of people. 

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Even worse than this could be the creation of the disappearance of the human race, making the planet uninhabitable. 

So the real price of oil is not what we pay at the pump or tank, but the price is life itself. 

There are steps you can take a person as well. Try to take public transportation to their sports games or local bingo hall or better yet, watch the game on TV or play online bingo.

Governments around the world are starting to take notice, but unless the major consumers begin to cut back the efforts of countries that have been working for Global greenhouse gas reduction will fail. 

What you do things and if enough people start thinking about the effect on the planet and the future of our children may require Policiano to take note and act. 

Type man met once to stop the production and use of CFCs that destroy our UV protective layer of the atmosphere, ozone, so there’s no reason you can not overcome this global problem.

Most cab drivers pick and drop IT employees. They work in 12-hour shifts and some of them work constantly in night shifts. During the day, these cabs can be found parked by the road side with their glasses rolled up and engines running. Cab drivers turn on the AC, recline their seats and take a ‘quick nap’. Some of these naps could be well over seven hours!!! What a waste of fuel!!!

In fact, such cabs can be spotted very easily in and around the city. Even a slightest break from their schedule is enough to send these cab drivers to sleep. The city heat gives them the much needed excuse to keep the AC turned on.

There is a pressing need to educate these drivers on the importance of saving fuel. They should be held accountable for their immoderate use of fuel. One way of doing that would be to track fuel consumption against the number of kilometers driven by the car. At least it would send a warning signal to erring cab drivers that their imprudent habits would no longer go unnoticed.

1. Don’t quickly accelerate out of a stop light or stop sign
2. On the highway try not to brake, because when you do the engine has to adjust to speed
3. Use cruise control when you can.  It keeps an engine running at an efficient revolutions per minute
4. Keep your tires inflated to the designated amount of pounds (air)
5. Keep your regular maintenance up with oil changes, fuel injector cleaning and correct compression
6. Use only the petroleum grade that your vehicle NEEDS, such as 87 octane for most.  Most of the time people put higher octane level fuel into their vehicle because they feel it will run better.