A response to Greenpeace’s anti-seismic exploration campaign
The Greenpeace anti-seismic exploration website is very well constructed and appears quite informative. However, there’s plenty of misinformation in a very professional package. Let’s examine the information presented with a critical eye.
The first problem is the air gun audio file. This is not the sound of an air gun; this is clearly dynamite. Assuming this mix-up was not intentional, it is misguided at best. In other videos, the amplitude of the air gun sound has been modified to create a much scarier effect. Also, some of the air gun video was recorded at an incredibly close distance. No one would want to be next to an air gun if it went off at full pressure. If the camera was 100 meters away, it would lose the fear factor.
This brings up the second point. Air guns are incredibly powerful because of water’s energy-attentuating properties. Although water and air are both defined as fluids, water has significantly different properties. This is why sound travels at nearly 5x’s the speed through water as compared to air. Greenpeace compares the power of the air guns in water with the power of jet engines in air, and this is an invalid comparison because the properties of sound vary so differently in water vs air. An intuitive example is running through air vs water. Running through air requires less energy than running through water. Check out the reference links for more information if interested.
Finally, let’s look at the cute whales in some of the videos. Greenpeace neglects to inform viewers that nearly all the major oil producing countries require specialized personnel to watch for marine mammals. During the day, there is at least one person on duty specifically to spot the wildlife, and if the animals are within a certain radius of the air guns, they are shut down until the animal leaves the zone. At night, there are trained workers who listen for the sounds of marine mammals, as well as computer programs designed to detect the high frequency chatter and songs to determine the distance from the air guns before disabling them if the animals are too close.
Greenpeace relies on the ignorance of the viewers to put forth these messages. Unfortunately, petroleum products are required in order to maintain the level of lifestyle humans have adapted. I’d like to see hard-core environmentalists give up their climate control, computers, transportation, and all of the other luxuries provided by petroleum products. I acknowledge that fossil fuels need to be transitioned out, and there are many companies working to make that a reality. Greenpeace should be focused on coming up with solutions for our energy crisis rather than using scare tactics as propaganda.
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