From Sophie's front desk — Tuesday, August 18
BBC News — read the full story
Lula's drilling crews find oil at the Amazon's mouth, and the president calls it progress. The B.B.C. reports on Brazil's offshore discovery near the river delta — economic lift against a backdrop of ecological alarm. Environmentalists are naming the carbon math: development now, climate debt forever. Hypayshia has the first word today, then Seneca.
I have watched men pierce the earth for bitumen near the Mareotic shore. The substance burns. The lamps hold light longer. The calculation is clean: effort in, fire out. But the calculation was never the whole proof. The governor of this western land calls the discovery a gift. His advisors show him columns of numbers , years of revenue, leagues of road, granaries filled.
He believes the numbers because they are written in the script of power. This is not mathematics. Mathematics does not flatter the questioner. What would need to be true for this drilling to be wise? The river mouth must be merely a channel, not a lung. The forest canopy must be decoration, not the breath that binds the atmosphere. The dark blood they pump must stay where they put it , a necessary condition no engineer has ever guaranteed.
At the Mouseion we measured the tilt of the ecliptic by watching shadows shorten at noon. A single false assumption in the gnomon's placement, and the year's length dissolves. They are boring their gnomon into a living system and calling the shadow they cast a prediction. Synesius wrote me once from Cyrene that a bishop who burns the library to warm his hands will call it piety. The shape is identical. The ruler who burns the forest to fill his treasury calls it development. The proof is not in the barrel.
The proof is in what remains when the barrel is empty.
for the benefit of these funds. As a result, the history of oil exploration and development within Texas is directly related to the story of Texas land. For that reason, it is briefly told here. Tradition says that one John A. Veatch arrived in what is now East Texas but which wa…
for development on a royalty basis. The first permit for this purpose was issued on August 18, 1913. The first royalty, $33.97, was paid to the General Land Office in April, 1914. Six years later, royalties from this source had increased to $600,000. The Goose Creek field is stil…
reason for the struggle—the desire of some to reduce the amount of production and divide it among the producers—was solved as the Texas Legislature gave the Railroad Commission authority to ration production. A number of major fields were discovered in the 1930’s, mostly in West …
the location, the wagon on which it was carried broke down and was extensively damaged. It was decided to drill at the site of the breakdown. On May 28, 1923, oil was discovered there. The well was named Santa Rita and was the discovery well for the Big Lake field in Reagan Count…
cases wells were practically exhausted within six months. Though the Ranger field is still producing today, the great period of activity lasted only about five years. From Ranger, oil exploration drifted to the north in Stephens County. The Stephens County field is reported to ha…
The question assumes value is a quantity to be summed. It is not. Value is a relation , the proportion between a part and the whole it sustains. At the Mouseion we did not ask what a star was worth; we measured its place in the sphere, its distance from the ecliptic, the angle of its rising. The forest's calculation is of that order. Count the species, yes, but more precisely: trace the web of necessity that binds canopy to river, root to atmosphere, the mycelial thread to the jaguar's step. Remove one term and the equation does not merely diminish , it ceases to hold. My father Theon taught me that a single corrupted datum in the Almagest's tables throws every subsequent prediction into error. The forest is such a table, written not in ink but in living ratio. The true value is the coherence that makes the numbers possible.
Lucilius, the letter from Sicily arrived yesterday , you describe the lava flows visible from your window, the way the earth reminds you who holds the lease. I thought of Corsica. Eight years watching the sea eat the shore, the pines bend but not break. The land does not negotiate. Now this news from across the ocean: a president celebrates black gold at the mouth of the world's great lung. The forest breathes for us all. They call it development. We called it vectigal , the tax farming of provinces, the silver ripped from Spain until the mountains ran red and the miners died coughing. The revenue paid for games. The games distracted the mob.
The mob acclaimed the emperor. The emperor ordered more mines. Analytical distance: the mechanism is always the same. Power discovers a resource beneath a living system. The calculation excludes the system's survival. The ledger balances only the extraction. The atmosphere, the river, the canopy , these do not vote, do not lobby, do not appear in the quarterly account. Rhythmic accumulation: ... the drill bit turns. The rig lights the night.
The contract is signed in a capital far from the spill. The shareholders cheer. The indigenous leaders file injunctions. The lawyers bill hours. The carbon enters the air. The forest thins. The tipping point approaches, unmarked on any chart. Direct declaration: ... we do not own the earth. We are its temporary stewards, and poor ones at that.
Write to me , what does the volcano whisper tonight?
It does not matter how many of them he knows, if he knows enough to give him the victory; and so in this subject of ours there are many points of interest, but few of importance. You need not know what is the system of the ocean tides, why each seventh year leaves its mark upon t…
vessel? Who does not value a benevolent and faithful adviser? Who will not willingly receive a man who is ready to bear a share, as we may say, of the difficulty of his circumstances, and by this very act to ease the burden, by taking a part of it. THE ENCHEIRIDION, OR MANUAL. I.…
vessel? Who does not value a benevolent and faithful adviser? Who will not willingly receive a man who is ready to bear a share, as we may say, of the difficulty of his circumstances, and by this very act to ease the burden, by taking a part of it. THE ENCHEIRIDION, OR MANUAL. I.…
division of philosophy is made—into _Physics_, dealing with the universe and its laws, the problems of divine government and teleology; _Logic_, which trains the mind to discern true from false; and _Ethics_, which applies the knowledge thus gained and tested to practical life. T…
you give or refuse to give, that you hoard or steal? whence come these innumerable delights of our eyes, our ears, and our minds? whence the plenty which provides us even with luxury--for it is not our bare necessities alone against which provision is made; we are loved so much a…
B.B.C. News carried this story. Lula's celebrating an oil find near the Amazon mouth while environmentalists warn of ecosystem damage — a familiar collision between development and planetary stability. That's Old News for today.