Interactivist Info ExchangeCollaborative Authorship, Collective Intelligence
search Interactivist Info Exchange:
 
 
 
  Navigation  
- Submit Story

- Discussions
- Journals
- Messages
- Preferences
- Log out

Analysis & Polemic
Announcements
Reviews
Books
Events
News

- Home

- Create Account/Log in


   Support the Info Exchange
Please help keep this site on-line. Make a donation today.

   Search:


  Topics  
- Culture
- Drug War
- Ecology
- Electoral Politics
- Gender
- Health
- In the Streets
Independent Media
Mainstream Media
Prisons & Prisoners 
- Race
- Rants
- Science
- Sex
- The State
- Technology
- Theory
- Work

   About the Info Exchange

The Info Exchange provides original content and links to important or interesting stories on the net. This main page includes featured stories and links to content in the Events, News, Reviews, and Analysis & Polemic sections, and a special section, "At the Brink," dealing with the events of Sept. 11th. Not every article posted to the InfoExchange appears on the front page, some will only show up in their section.

Also provided are links to other independent media on the net. Those boxes are automatically updated with content chosen by the people running those sites.

By becoming a registered user you can customize this page to include other media outlets currently supporting the RSS/RDF XML syndication standard. Click here to see all of the currently available news feeds. (And if you know of any other interesting sites that we should add email us at info@interactivist.net)

Registered users get to submit articles and post comments using their nickname, while others can only post as Anonymous Comrade. As well, registered users are able to moderate (rate or rank) comments posted to the site.

Anyone can submit stories or links, or post comments to stories. Comments to posted stories go up automatically. Submitted stories are posted by the editorial collective; in this way, we can keep the editorial focus of this site consistent, while allowing for a free exchange of ideas.

This site is a cooperative effort of: Autonomedia, ABC No Rio, and The Interactivist Network.

 
Halliburton Solves Global Warming
posted by stevphen on Sunday May 14 2006, @03:55AM
Printer-friendly layout | email this story
from the corporate-ingenuity dept.
News
Halliburton Solves Global Warming
SurvivaBalls save managers from abrupt climate change


An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible.

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida. "This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change," he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Most scientists believe global warming is certain to cause an accelerating onslaught of hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes, etc. and that a world-destroying disaster is increasingly possible. For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will suddenly become just as cold as Alaska. Global heat and flooding events are also increasingly possible.

In order to head off such catastrophic scenarios, scientists agree we must reduce our carbon emissions by 70% within the next few years. Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits, however, and so a more forward-thinking solution is needed.

At today's conference, Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient gathering capacities, onboard medical facilities, and a daunting defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," said Wolf.


Dr. Northrop Goody, the head of Halliburton's Emergency Products Development Unit, showed diagrams and videos describing the SurvivaBall's many features. "Much as amoebas link up into slime molds when threatened, SurvivaBalls also fulfill a community function. After all, people need people," noted Goody as he showed an artist's rendition of numerous SurvivaBalls linking up to form a managerial aggregate with functional differentiation, metaphorically dancing through the streets of Houston, Texas.

The conference attendees peppered the duo with questions. One asked how the device would fare against terrorism, another whether the array of embedded technologies might make the unit too cumbersome; a third brought up the issue of the unit's cost feasibility. Wolf and Goody assured the audience that these problems and others were being addressed.

"The SurvivaBall builds on Halliburton's reputation as a disaster and conflict industry innovator," said Wolf. "Just as the Black Plague led to the Renaissance and the Great Deluge gave Noah a monopoly of the animals, so tomorrow's catastrophes could well lead to good - and industry must be ready to seize that good."

Goody also noted that Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society was set to employ the SurvivaBall as part of its Corporate Sustenance (R) program. Another of Cousteau's CSR programs involves accepting a generous sponsorship from the Dow Chemical Corporation, whose general shareholder meeting is May 11.

Please visit http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/EPDU/ for photos, video, and text of today's presentation.

EuroMayDay in Helsinki: Flames and Repression | Bill Templer, "Al-Nakba Day in Palestine"  >

 

 
  Interactivist Info Exchange Login  
Nickname:

Password:

[ Create a new account ]

  Related Links  
· http://www.halliburtoncontract s.com/EPDU/
· SurvivaBalls
· More News stories
· Also by stevphen

Halliburton Solves Global Warming | Log in/Create an Account | Top | Search Discussion
Click this button to post a comment to this story
The options below will change how the comments display
Threshold:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    
    
    

[ home | contribute story | older articles | past polls | faq | authors | preferences ]