Hello – again. Sorry to have been away so long. Health issues in the last year have kept my usually loud voice silent. All is mostly better now and I am back at my keyboard. I hope this is a good thing for you. Tell me and I will (may) keep quiet – or not.
Much has happened in the last six months – not much of it good. We now have two terrible unnecessary wars and many more unnecessary deaths. We have a terrible government here with so much scandal – every week we have yet another revelation. The potential for another terrible government in the USA is really scary. What does Putin know about Trump that has the latter seem inured to all things going on inside and by Russia. Maybe alleged ‘strongmen’ all just like each other for better or worse – the latter for us.
In the energy world, it seems the charade that was the big oil companies going green has been exposed. Without naming names – you will know who they are if you have been paying attention – one of the biggest has pulled the plug on its involvement in renewables, another is in the midst of selling out its offshore wind assets and a third has filed suit to prevent militant shareholders from voicing objections at its annual meeting to its plans to expand production of oil and gas. Not a pretty sight.
It would be easy – even for me, now seen as poacher turned gamekeeper – to long for the days when the production of oil and gas was not seen as leading the way towards planetary destruction. It was great fun and exciting when all one had to worry about was how far subsea production could be transported to a host facility and in how deep water it could be done. But I ask the simple question to all of those engineers and management types who long ago hitched their wagons to the hydrocarbon universe, if they had known at the beginning of their careers when they might have been more idealistic – or at least more open minded – what ExxonMobil knew back at the end of the 1970’s about the long term effects of the burning of fossil fuels on the environment would they have carried on pushing oil and gas? Or might at least some of them tried to point out to the heads of their companies what the world might be like for their grandchildren if things did not change?
Many would argue that without hydrocarbons we might not have reached the technological advancement that we have. This is a similar argument that many who rail against the anti-cattle production movement that humankind needed to eat meat to grow their brains. Well this old saw was proved wrong this week when scientists have shown by analysis of various artifacts that hunter-gatherers were doing more gathering than hunting. And what is this technological acme that we have reached? Social media which allows nutjobs to attack anyone they don’t like from behind an electronic wall or artificial intelligence developers who may do some good, but at what cost to the folks who will lose their jobs and livelihood to a bank of computers.
I am not a luddite – look it up if you don’t know what that means – but it is not necessary to embrace every high-tech advance as a giant leap forward for mankind. As to how one slows the onslaught of industrial developments, that is a question for those philosophers smarter than me.
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For folks who have known me more than a few years, I am changing my ways. That is, I am becoming a total freelance operator as I am winding up my company (Knighton Enterprises Ltd) named for the farm of my first father-in-law here. It was the entity through which Subsea Engineering News was published and the technology seminars and courses for budding subsea engineers were organised. It was a hoot. I firmly recommend to anyone to work for yourself. Also I will need to be more careful with the images I use to illustrate my rantings. I inadvertently used a PA image last year without holding a licence to do so. It cost me/KEL a chunk money. Mea culpa. Finally I will be in Aberdeen for Subsea Expo in three weeks time. I hope to see some of your there. Get in touch if you want to meet up.
