we ll get into that, but we ll stick on the science for a minute. it was 3.4 degrees. 3.6. being the tipping point. when you look at this report and you look at that tipping point number, do you think what this report is recommending is the solution to avoid hitting that number? these are policy questions. but from an engineering standpoint, which is what we need is energy storage. by that expression i mean bat ris. we need a better battery of some kind. to do that we would invest and we would invest in the same way we had a space program. people will have to draw this analogy to apollo. you put these dozen nasa centers in all these different states and these e enormous problems were solved. so the problem, though, if you have people that think the problem doesn t need to be solved, then you can t begin the longest journey with the single step. that has been the political
you don t work for gm, but it seems unusual to you. you did a little research. you couldn t find that being done for other parts. even for gm, it made them difficult to calculate how many vehicles to recall. all this is true, yes? correct. i think that s what s continued to expand the number of cars being recalled for this issue. let s get to speculation here, but within your realm of expertise. why do you think you would change a part because you learned about that so you change it and not change the serial number? why would you do that? you know, at that point, i guess after listening to the hearings yesterday, that s still under investigation. it doesn t from an engineering standpoint for me, it doesn t make sense, particularly at least in a lot of my work. it s at least typical to start
having their b, c, d plans in place. i know it was stressful for many. the dev stays so severe ungeologist says it would be a miracle if the official toll is less than 10,000. but engineers are citing japan s strong building codes. infrastructure and city planning to keep houses away from the shore as reasons why the loss of human life isn t greater. all of this begging the question, how would the u.s. is fare in a similar disaster? with american infrastructure suffering from structural deficiencies in bridges, levees and leaking dams, are we prepared for a natural disaster of this magnitude? i m joined by jim harris in denver, a structural engineer specializing in earthquake design. in an event like this, it s almost impossible for everyone to be properly prepare. japan seems to have a high level of preparedness from an engineering standpoint. how are the buildings able to
you know, a subsurface well failure, the well was designed to take that load when it was originally drilled, and if it does fail, it could fail very deep. the fluids would never reach the surface in that case. so all in all, this is just pure positive news coming out of the gulf this morning. i really think so. the fact that they ve got a mechanically engaged seal that s basically a flange instead of a slip-on friction seal, if you will, that s a great improvement. darryl, a lot of people have been asking the question. perhaps we just don t know how long things take from an engineering standpoint, but why didn t they think of this sooner? we talk about the large cement containment dome, then a smaller one, this top hat that was not fitting exactly right, a little bit lopsided.
with a spill like this before, have they? no, we haven t had anything as significant as this. and this dome that we re talking about, this 74-ton dome that they would put down, they have never done that before, have they in. no, that s not entirely true. the dome concept has been used before, almost 30 years ago before my time. okay. but from an engineering standpoint, they really are winging it right now. this is new territory. the idea with the dome is it s a band-aid. it s trying to manage the oil that is coming out of the well at this point. it s the easiest thing that they be do to control it. i think it s very good idea on their end. you need to be reminded that