Picture courtesy of Roland Kallenborn

at www.unis.no/.../Environmental/env_pictures.htm

 

 

Ominous Oil

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Question	Author	Date
Question1	Birte A.	12/6/2007
Question 2	Allison M.	12/12/2007
Question 3	Birte A.	12/19/2007
Question 4	Allison M.	12/13/2007

 

Question 1: Is your personal consumption of oil part of the problem?

 

My personal consumption is also part of the problem; everyone's is, if it is not controlled. I take a car pool to school and try to use as little oil as possible, but using a low amount of oil is almost impossible in today's busy world. Just think about it: Almost everything around us is made from oil. Oil is used to make plastic, bandages, plant fertilizer, dishwashing liquid, ink, and many other things that I am unable to list here. America consumes 20,730,000 barrels of oil per day. This makes it the number one oil consumer on the planet. Since the United States has quite a large population, though, the average amount of barrels used is 68.838 barrels a day per 1,000 people. There are many people who would like to save oil. I am one of those people. Not only because oil is expensive, but because it is bad for the ozone and the environment. Personally, my family tries to use very little oil. I interviewed my mom on this topic:

 

Birte A.: How much oil do we use a day (taken into account plastic, cosmetics, etc.)?

Mom: I can't measure it, because I use oil everywhere. Oil is in cosmetics, lotion, soap, plastic, medicine, and many other things. To make the things we have (even if they are not made of oil) require oil to make. Oil powers factories and machines.

Birte A.: What are we currently doing to reduce the amount of oil we consume?

Mom: We collect and recycle plastic, we bring our own bags to the grocery store to save plastic bags, and do small things that may seem unsignificant unless everybody does it.

Birte A.: Do you think our oil consumption is part of the problem?

Mom: Yes, of course, because the government wants to make sure that the demand for oil of the American people is satsfied.

 

http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/uses/uses_home.html

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption

 

 

By Birte A. 12/6/2007

 

 

Question 2: What impact does oil have on our environment?

 

Question 2: What impact does oil have on our environment?

Unfortunately, our "addiction" to oil is a big part of the problems facing the environment today. So what, from Mother Nature's perspective, is wrong with oil? What does it do to the environment?

For a good example of the harm our beloved oil causes the environment, look no further than an oil spill. When one of our oil tankers sinks or leaks, of course, the ocean and the marine life that depend on it pay dearly. Oil spills harm the animals, the ocean itself, and the environment as a whole.

I found a great site, http://chennaionline.com/science/Environment/oilspills.asp, that addresses all of the ways oil spills hurt marine creatures.  Animals that ingest oil become poisoned and suffocate to death (can you imagine drinking oil?) But even if they don't swallow it, they can ingest toxic fumes. Plus, oil gets stuck to them, and it coats their bodies and destroys the natural insulating and water-repelling abilities of their fur or feathers, so they die. Cleaning the oil off isn't going to work either, because they will ingest it. Even fish aren't safe: the oil gets into them through their gills. A big problem with oil spills is that, since oil is less dense than water, oil will float on top of the ocean and form a thick layer called an "oil slick." This slick traps all marine life.

 

Plus, our use of oil pollutes the ozone layer, as exhaust emissions from cars create "bad ozone" that can prove terrible for human health as well as that of the environment. Burning of oil also leads to acid rain, which pollutes the water and air, kills plants and animals, and even causes damage to man-made structures.

Finally, there's the controversial issue that a certain former Vice President has recently put in the headlines: global warming. Oil, when burned, produces carbon dioxide, which gets trapped in the atmosphere and heats up our planet. This leads to all sorts of climate changes, like melting glaciers, ocean flooding, droughts, hurricanes, etc. Check out more information at http://crudeoilbiz.com/oil-industry-burning.shtml.

This is by no means the extent of the damage oil can do to the environment. From oil spills to acid rain, oil definitely has its downside. One thing is clear when it comes to oil: we can't live without it, but the Earth can't live with it.

 

By Allison Moody

12/12/07

 

 

Question 3: Are there any viable energy alternatives?

 

 

 

    Yes, there are definitely viable energy alternatives to oil. Energy can be created by using power from water, wind, heat, sunlight, and many other sources. Oil does not need to be burned to produce energy. The problem is, there are so many uses for oil, that they can not all be fixed by using wind, water, and sunlight. Oil is also used to make plastic, fabric, and most of the things we use today. Without oil, life would not be as we know it. Yes, you can make fabric from cotton and use many other natural resources to "copy" what oil does. When these resources are used, they will also become limited. Such "replacing resources" are wood, metal, and anything that can be made into a usable objects. Since the pressure will then be on the wood, metal, etc., these will become limited and war will erupt in other countries over these resources.

 

    Many countries use alternate energy sources, because it is dangerous to rely on oil only. In Germany, for example, power is generated in many ways that are very useful and cause the consumption of oil to decrease. In many parts of Germany, there are large fields used for crops. Because the price of oil has increased so much that you literally have to pay over 5 dollars a gallon in Germany, many people now try to rely on other things for energy.

    One of the most common things people do is install solar panels on their roofs. Solar panels capture the light of the sun and transform it into heat or energy. These can be used to generate electricity, warm up water, or keep the house warm in Winter and cool in Summer.

    There are also things that the German government has done from taxes: they have built wind turbines. Wind turbines are very useful, because as it was mentioned earlier: there are many fields in Germany. Fields mean that there are no trees to slow or catch the wind. There are many wind turbine groups (known as "forests") on fields in Germany. When the wind blows, the turbines spin. This motion gets generated into electricity by generators inside the turbine. This power then gets sent through long power cables to near cities, houses, and villages.

   

    Saving energy is saving money. If you do not have the money to buy a solar panel, don't worry. there are many ways to save energy using passive solar energy. When the sun comes out on a cold day, don't turn on the furnace. The sun's light can be harvested even without solar panels. Open blinds in the house on whichever side of the house the sun is. This lets in light and heat, so you save double: the cost of electricity for light and the cost of heating.

    Another thing you could do is plant a tree in front of your house. In summer, the tree will have leaves and the sun won't heat up your house. In winter, the leaves fall off and sunlight can come in to heat your house. This saves a lot of energy and money.

 

    Power is precious all around the world, and since oil is a limited resource, it cannot be relied upon. One day it will be gone and the entire planet will have to look for other sources of energy.

 

 

Here is an idea for an alternative energy source: Hydrogen fuel cells that power a California Christmas tree:

 

 

 

By Birte Ann 12/19/2007

 

Question 4: Is there a connection between oil and violence in the Middle East?

 

One thing's for sure: we Americans definitely need our oil. And in order to get it, we're willing to do just about anything. The problem is that this makes us--well, strongly disliked is putting it mildly--in the Middle East.

 

 And really, you can see why. After World War I, the former Ottoman empire was divided up between Britain and France. The oil industry was then taken over by the West, who exploited the Middle Eastern nations by taking all the oil they pleased and making huge profits from it. And as for the countries to whom the oil rightfully belonged? They got a measly 12.5% of the profits as a royalty payment. Of course, this infuriated them, so they nationalized the oil industry, taking it back from Western powers. Now they had the profits.

 

 

They then became rich as kings. Literally, "kings": the people who controlled the oil industry were the ones with the wealth to seize control, create vast armies, and rule the country. That's how dictatorships sprang up in the Middle East. These dictators oppressed the people, creating strong resentment against their corrupt regimes. Another big problem is that we supported those hated dictators, and in fact helped to put them in place so that we could maintain control over the region to, in turn, control the supply of oil. This created strong anti-U.S. feelings in the Middle East. Read more about this connection at http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast.asp. (It has some great links too.) What it explains is that we basically put "puppet" leaders into the Middle East to keep the region stable (through brute force) so that our gas prices would remain stable too. Our policy in the Middle East has been to make friends with repressive regimes for our own selfish interests.

 

Of course, we can't always trust those puppet dictators to stay in line, so the U.S. military has been present in the Middle East for decades. This angered extremists, who saw our presence in sacred places like Mecca to be an absolute outrage and a crime, and thought we were contaminating the holy places of Islam. And they got really mad and decided to strike back--not just for this reason, but for many others as well. Cue 9-11. Plus, what do you think financed those terrorists? That's right: the revenues their countries make from our oil consumption. So in a sense, we are funding the very war we are trying to fight, handing money right to our enemies. And all thanks to oil.

 

 

It's tragic but true: the Middle East is a dangerous place right now. So many people are killed every day, and at least part of that is due to--of all things, our "addiction" to oil.

 

 

By Allison Moody 12/13/07

 

 

 

 

 

 Create your own educational wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS