Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 November 22

= November 22 =

Gasoline: product information
How can a person buying gasoline for his or her automobile find out the background information about the gasoline? The background information includes: (1) the exact date and location of the extraction of the petroleum from which the gasoline was produced, (2) whether the extraction involved hydraulic fracturing, (3) the specific refinery which produced the gasoline, and (4) the exact route and the total distance from the point of extraction to the point of sale to that person? —Wavelength (talk) 05:37, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Nohow -- the shippers and refiners (let alone the retailers) don't bother to keep this information, because it's useless and an additional expense in terms of record-keeping. 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 06:41, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Furthermore, you'll (practically) always get a mixture from different sources. As different oil producing countries increase or decrease production, oil companies have to switch from one source to another. At the very least there will be a residue from one source in the storage tanks before it's topped up with crude oil from another source, but if the oil business is any similar to the coal business (and I think it is), then this would lead to variation in quality that would be bad for the machinery in the oil refinery. So they always use a mixture of oil from various sources and change the mixing ratio depending on availability of oil from different sources. At best you may be able to trace your petrol to a specific refinery, but not to a specific well. And as oil is kept in storage for months, there is no way to keep track of the extraction date either. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:38, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Googling "ethical gasoline" suggests plenty of leads including ethical ratings for different oil companies.--Shantavira|feed me 08:18, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your reply.—Wavelength (talk) 22:51, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * But how do they determine their ethical ratings, and do they provide more details than just the rating? Say, for example, that you don't want gasoline which was extracted or refined in terrorist nations, but you have no objections whatsoever to fracking (as is the case with me) -- do they give enough info about matters like this? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 05:22, 24 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Well a lot of fracking happens in the US, so I'm not sure if you have to worry much about fracking if you're avoiding petrol extracted or refined in "terrorist nations". Unfortunately if you live in the US it's probably difficult to avoid petrol extracted or refined in the US. Nil Einne (talk) 12:55, 24 November 2016 (UTC)


 * The only way to be totally ethical about gasoline is to not use it. Get rid of your car and ride your bike everywhere, or walk. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:53, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Except it's not for us to be pontificating on the ethics of others. We have enuf to be getting on with in walking our own personal moral/ethical tightropes every day.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:45, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
 * I assume you're addressing user Shantavira, who broached the subject. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:12, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Being "totally" ethical by not using gasoline would be impossible - it is not just about not having a car: it would also mean not buying anything which has been transported by a gasoline using vehicle, not using electricity of piped water as it might have been pumped using gasoline, not using any plastics which might have been made from oil, etc. Wymspen (talk) 16:09, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Ding-ding-ding! And you too need to talk to the user who brought up the "ethics" issue. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:17, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Well, no, actually. He simply mentioned the concept of "ethical gasoline".  You went further and started gratuitously telling the world how to be ethical about gasoline.  That's not your place.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:14, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Why mention it at all, then? Yell at Wavelength. He brought it up. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:58, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * You can always be relied upon to side-step the point. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  21:34, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * You can often be relied upon to make a big deal out of nothing. Maybe you've never heard the expression, "The only way to be truly free is to want nothing"? This is the same idea: The only way to be "ethical" about oil usage, as suggested by that other editor, is to not use it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:07, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * And you're still doing it. Silence!  I keeel you!  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  23:26, 23 November 2016 (UTC)
 * And you're still doing it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:15, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Open pit mine [local knowledge needed]


Does anyone know the location of this mine? Photo is from https://unsplash.com/ .--Recent contributor (talk) 19:13, 22 November 2016 (UTC)


 * The Erzberg mine in Austria. Mikenorton (talk) 19:50, 22 November 2016 (UTC)