

A natural oil seep in Ventura County, CA
California environmental group advocates drilling to reduce oil pollution on local beaches













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RE: Interesting...
By porkpie on 8/29/2008 3:28:28 PM , Rating: 2
Whatever I could say on SOS would be irrelevant to both the professor and his message.
And by that argument, irrelevant to the entire discussion. So why even bring it up?

Your comments to Masher make it clear. You were looking for some way to cast aspersions on the intentions of this group. Trying to deny it now is pretty pathetic.

RE: Interesting...
By jbartabas on 8/29/08, Rating: -1
RE: Interesting...
By porkpie on 8/29/2008 4:12:29 PM , Rating: 2
Then congratulations, you disproved Jason's point that some environmental groups are actually sensible. This isn't a "real" environmental group at all.

RE: Interesting...
By Solandri on 9/6/2008 1:36:55 AM , Rating: 2
My graduate degree is in ocean engineering. Most of the folks working in the field love the ocean. It's why we took up careers in it instead of something more lucrative like aerospace or generally applicable like civil engineering or computer science.

Once you get your degree, you've basically got three choices. Work for the Navy, work for NOAA, or work for the oil industry. There are a handful of small companies scattered in the field (mostly manufacturers supplying equipment to the Navy, NOAA, or the oil industry), but the bulk of the jobs are by those three employers. Shipbuilding used to be big, but it's mostly outsourced to Asia now.

So if you're not working for the military / don't have a security clearance, and aren't doing research for the government, your job choice is pretty much limited to offshore oil exploration and drilling. That's just the way it is if you want an engineering career involving the ocean. Oceaneering International is the biggest ocean engineering company, and works on everything from oil platforms to research ships to oceanographic sensing equipment.

Like I said, most everyone in the field loves the ocean and would do everything we can to protect it. If we wanted to work in the oil industry and make lots of money, we would've become petroleum engineers. It pays just as well (if not better), you can get a job inland and not just on the coasts, and a mere storm doesn't drastically increase your chances of dying. If you love the ocean, you become an ocean engineer and just happen to be employed by the oil industry. We wouldn't be in the field if we didn't love the ocean.

