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submitted 2 months ago by maegul@lemmy.ml to c/til@lemmy.world

While territorial claims are and will likely be heated, what struck me is that the area is right near the Drake Passage, in the Weddell Sea (which is fundamental to the world's ocean currents AFAIU).

I don't know how oil drilling in the antarctic could affect the passage, but still, I'm not sure I would trust human oil hunger with a 10ft pole on that one.

Also interestingly, the discovery was made by Russia, which is a somewhat ominous clue about where the current "multi-polar" world and climate change are heading. Antarctica, being an actual continent that thrived with life up until only about 10-30 M yrs ago, is almost certainly full of resources.

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[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 113 points 2 months ago
[-] qprimed@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 months ago

ever get the feeling that devil's blood really is the final "fuck you, mammals!" from the dinosaurs?

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

From the unicellular algae *

It’s much older than dinos.

[-] qprimed@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago
[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 11 points 2 months ago

Congrats on joining the daily 10,000.

BTW there were tar pits present in the Triassic. That’s just how old oil is.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hell, there are still tar pits with mammoths and dino skeletons stuck in them to this day! I saw them when I was 5, and vaguely remember the Le Brea Tar pits. Apparently I charmed the staff with my knowledge of dinosaurs and which eras they lived in. Of course this was the '80s so they didn't have feathers yet.

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[-] qprimed@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

so, quite literally there were non trivial stores of energy dense hydrocarbons available almost immediately after the permian? thats pretty wild.

any real evidence for large amounts of abiogenic oil, or is this still on the weird end of strange?

[-] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sorry, meant to say Jurassic. Oil formation time isn’t consensus yet, but it’s estimated it can take as little as a couple hundred thousand years, so it’s possible there were tar pits in the Triassic. I’m not aware of any evidence to it, but I’m no geologist or archaeologist.

As for abiogenic oil, first I’m hearing of it. Not a clue. Seems fringe.

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[-] Sundial@lemm.ee 57 points 2 months ago

I'd actually be curious to know if melting ice caps makes oil drilling more or less hazardous in this case.

But 100% agreed on not trusting oil companies to be mindful when doing anything there. We may also be hearing some formal declaration from the US saying the penguins have WMDs and are anti freedom in the not so distant future.

[-] aaron@lemm.ee 16 points 2 months ago

We only attack 'half-black' entities, it's politically expedient.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I would think if the cap is melting, even keeping the rig in place would be a problem.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 42 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

guys i don't know about you but i have a feeling Antarctica needs some democracy right the fuck now.

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Fucking Communist penguins leaving their children to fend for themselves! Do they have polar kangaroos up there in American soil? Let's defend it! The polar kangaroos are near extinction.

The black penguins and the white penguins are getting along a little too well, they need some social media

[-] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 33 points 2 months ago

US and Russia are the only countries exempt from the ban on new territorial claims under the UN Antarctic Treaty. Drilling is also banned but thanks to carbon credits, you don't need to drill to monetize oil: you just need to threaten that you will.

"You know us: we have violated international law before. You can pay us $5/ton to leave some of the oil behind on the off-chance that we do it again. New low for carbon credits!"

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago

That's fucking stupid. That's like paying someone for not killing you.

[-] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Well, this is how a large part of how carbon credits "work". You can pay someone to not cut down their tree, for example, and get a certificate in return. However, the demand for wood will likely just get satisfied elsewhere and there is little stopping people from selling multiple carbon credits per tree, or just including trees that would not get cut down anyway.

In the best case scenario, actual carbon gets stored so that it won't decompose (like dead trees or other biomass in oxygen, maybe even plastic someday) or burned (like coal that future people can reach); however, that's energy-intensive (hydrocarbons release energy when turned into oxides and vice versa) and difficult. Obviously, such carbon credits are expensive and they would probably cost an airline as much as fuel for your flight. Sealing an oil reservoir instead of using it, as I suggest, would be the easiest way to effectively accomplish this but oil producers don't want to miss out on the fields they operate.
Unless the "carbon neutral" option for your flight ticket is a large percentage of its price, they are probably using dubious carbon credits - in the typical case, they are like saying your crypto mining rig is zero-emission because it's next to an existing hydroelectric dam. The energy from that could have been used to offset some carbon-intensive production elsewhere (unless all your energy demand is already satisfied by clean electricity and you cannot export, like ~~Iceland~~ some islands).
At worst, it's a pure scam that offsets no carbon and is pushed by Big Oil to prevent buyers from considering systemic changes to their carbon-heavy operation.

Edit: Iceand indeed has an overproduction of clean energy and they use it to extract and export aluminum, which is energy-intensive. Still, as long as there are gas furnaces and combustion engines on the island, there is room for improvement. However, small tropical islands (which cannot host aluminum factories) mostly use solar panels and some storage solution, and computationally heavy tasks are a legitimate use for any excess electricity production.

[-] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't know man, in the US people pay insurance companies money to have access to life saving medications like insulin. So in a way we pay people so we don't die from medical neglect.... which could be considered negligent homicide depending on how you argue it.

This sort of bullshit is normalized in the US. I dont like that our country operates like the mafia, but here we are.

[-] Kedly@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago

Is that not what mugging usually is?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

How much can we pay them to never drill for any oil again? Because I'm thinking it's worth the cost.

[-] slampisko@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

Good, let's all make sure it stays right where it is

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Instructions unclear, we started world war 3 over Antarctican resources.

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ron Howard: They didn't.

It's Always Sunny theme music

FRANK MELTS ANTARCTICA

[-] assembly@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

US about to declare war on the Arctic and bring some freedom to…uh…the penguins?

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago

I was about to correct you, but then thought, no, I wouldn't put it past the US to invade the Arctic when oil is discovered in the Antarctic.

[-] ZeroCool@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

[Trump pulls out a sharpie and starts circling the wrong part of the map]

"I AM PLACING TARIFFS ON PENGUINS UNTIL THEY GIVE US THEIR OIL AND SHOW ME HOW TO DO ALL THE DANCE MOVES FROM HAPPY FEET!"

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Followed by 65 year old Moms whose children haven't spoken to in a decade making Facebook memes with a Minion with Trump's toupee and 8 clones of the same exact frame of Pingu atop an Iceberg, next to a crop of the American Flag from Apollo 11, with an oil rig in the background.

Upper Text: Happy Feet Tariffs: The Final Frontier!

Bottom Text: Trump and Penguins Agree - LOVE America!

[-] RangerJosie@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

Gonna find a penguin wedding and drone strike it. Just for shits and giggles. (All penguins within 500ft of the impact are designated "Enemy Combatants" by default. (This totally isn't a war crime))

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

This totally isn’t a war crime

Robert M. Gates:

Very legal. Very cool.

[-] Pilferjinx@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's Russia sniffing around the area that should be unclaimable any nation.

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[-] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 27 points 2 months ago

"climate change is actually good because it'll melt all this ice that's in the way of our oil!"

[-] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

"The more oil we use, the more ice we clear! The more ice we clear, the more oil to use! It's a never ending cycle of win!"

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[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

I saw a warning-documentary 2 weeks ago on the big-screen, it was called 'John Carpenter's The Thing'

Leave that shit well alone.

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

At least it turned out alright in the end!

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[-] InternetUser2012@lemmy.today 23 points 2 months ago

ANTARTICA!!!!!! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FREEDOM!!!!

[-] Iloveyurianime@ani.social 4 points 2 months ago

GODBLESS AMERICA RAAAAH 🗣🗣🔥🔥

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago
[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

The reserves uncovered contain around 511 billion barrels worth of oil, equating to around 10 times the North Sea's output over the last 50 years.

According to documents discussed in U.K. parliament last week, the discovery was made by Russian research ships in the Weddell Sea, which falls under the U.K.'s claim in Antarctic territory. That claim overlaps with those of Chile and Argentina.

So in the water, not the land.

[-] maegul@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago

What difference does it make?

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago

The land is not supposed to be claimed by any nation. The sea, well as the article says is claimed by 3.

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[-] mechoman444@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Oil in Antarctica? Hold on to your shorts boys, America is sending all the freedom!

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I'm not sure I would trust human oil hunger with a 10ft pole on that one.

I'll fix it for you:

I'm not sure I would trust human oil hunger as far as I could throw a 10 ft pole.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Fortunately global warming will make it super easy to get to! Win/Win!

[-] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I’ll see you all in anchorage in 2076

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[-] Beacon@fedia.io 7 points 2 months ago

I'm pinning my hopes on crude oil prices being much lower after the 10-20 years it would take to sort out the territorial disputes and complete construction of rigs that could pump oil in large volume. Oil will still be very valuable in 10-20 years, but i would guess it'll be much less valuable then, and hopefully the price will be low enough to make it not worth the massive outlay cost

[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

In other news, oil tycoons have already begun making as much propaganda as possible as to why the world needs Antarctic oil for your car and why it's more environmentally friendly than any other source of fuel.

I'd say /s but I'm pretty sure they're still putting out pro oil propaganda because their lives and riches depend on destroying the planet.

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[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

God is effing with us now.

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[-] slickgoat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago
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this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
287 points (97.0% liked)

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