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Is Oil Evil?

Q.1. Is your personal consumption of oil part of the problem?(Y)
Q.2. What impact does oil have on our environment?(Y)
Q.4. Is there a connection between oil and violence in the Middle East?(M)
Sources:
Contributors:

The picture tp the right shows that the oil that we use in our everyday lives are hurting our environment.

Q.1. Is your personal consumption of oil part of the problem?(Y)

Yes, my consumption of oil is part of the problem. As I am using more oil everyday, people are taking more and more oil from the oil reservoirs. When using more oil, I am not helping stop the problem but contributing to destroying the enviorment. When using oil to operate machinery and doing other things I am releasing poisonous gases into the atmosphere. Also, because I am using oil countries will fight over the oil reservoirs to make profit from oil consumers such as the United States. This will cause major wars such as the war between Iraq and Kuwait, which led the many oil reservoirs being burned and destroyed. When driving to school or to the mall to hang out with friends my parents are using oil to get me to these places. Even though I am not driving the car, I am still using the oil. So, my personal consumption of oil and the comsumption of oil that other people use for taking me places and doing things are a major part of the serious problem.

The picture below shows that global warming causes great damage to the Earth. Even though such things are happening, president Bush still encourages the use of oil and the war for oil.

Q.2. What impact does oil have on our environment?(Y)

There are major impacts that oil has on our enviorment. The oil that we use to make cars run are released into the atmosphere which creates global warming. As the Earth gets warmer and warmer, the glaciers of the Artics and Antartica are melting leaving no home to the polar bears, penguins, and other animals that live there. These animals will soon be extinct. The melted glaciers will make the amount of water we have in the oceans more. Thus, the water will flood costal cities wiping out millions of people and destroying their homes and buisnesses. Not only can the use of oil affect the glaciers, it can also hurt other animals beacuse the gases released from the use of gas may be deadly. The deadly gases may destoy the animals home and/or the animal itself. Not only will the harmful gases hurt the animals and their homes they can also harm humans and destroy their homes and other things that they own. There are major effects that the use of oil has on our enviorment. This article helps show how oil is related to global warming, which most definitely has a negative effect on our environment.

The picture below shows that global warming causes great damage to the Earth. Even though such things are happening, president Bush still encourages the use of oil and the war for oil.

Q.3. Are there any viable energy alternatives?(M)

There are many other alternatives for making energy. Some include wind, thermal, hydro, and solar. All of these have advantages and disadvantages, though none are so harmful to the environment, costly, or limited in supply as oil. So why aren't we using them instead of oil? Well, here's what I think: Oil can be used anywhere, anytime. I use energy obtained through oil, people in Taiwan use energy from oil, people in Mexico use energy obtained through oil, and so on. I use it all day too, wether it's from running the AC in the summer or having a light on to read at night. Wind, thermal, hydro, and solar energy on the other hand, can not be used everywhere so easily, nor can it be used anytime. Hydroelectric power requires some sort of flowing water, which obviously isn't found everywhere, or there wouldn't be so many people dying of thirst in the middle east and such. Think about the desert; if they wanted to use hydroelectric power to supply energy, where would they buld a dam? Also, energy can not be made continuously. They must wait for water behind the dam to build up every once in a while. Thus, getting energy using hyroelectricity and such kills the environment around the dams needed for it. Think about it. How do they get the water to rush through the dam, spinning the turbines? They flood the land behind it, which obviously kills the habitat of animals living there. On the bright side, it's easy to predict and alter how much energy is generated. One major producer of hydroelectric power is in fact, the famed Niagara Falls, which actually doesn't use dams because the water moves fast enough damming isn't required for the water to spin the turbines. Another source of energy is solar power, which has no environmental downsides. The only problem is solar energy comes from the sun, so energy can only be made when the sun is out. This makes solar energy really unpractical in most places on the earth. In the United States, millions of dollars are spent every year to produce better ways to capture the energy of the sun and turn it into a more usable source of energy. Geothermal energy, like oil, can be used anytime, but definitely not anywhere. If I wanted to harness the power of geothermal energy in Mount Everest, I would have to dig miles and miles into the ground, where as if I were to try somewhere that was on a hot spot, like by a volcano, I wouldn't have to drill down even a mile to get to somewhere hot enough in the earth to make energy. Wind energy can only be used when wind is spinning the wind mills that are used to capture energy, and can only be used in windy places. Lets say I wanted to use wind energy to get my power: could I build a windmill in the middle of a not-so-windy state, like Louisianna? Well, obviously the answer is no. That would be stupid, because with no wind, how can you get any power? Germany gets close to 5% of it's power from windmills, which though not much, is already more than any country in the rest of the world. So does wind energy seem too practical? Not really. But then, when you put all those alternative energy sources together, use them more, you won't need as much oil, right?

Q.4. Is there a connection between oil and violence in the Middle East?(M)

A major cause of the violence in the middle east, in my opinion, is oil. In fact, if not a major cause, it's THE cause. Why you ask? Well, the way I see it, with the huge demand for oil, having a lot of oil in a country means $$$ money. If the middle east wasn't so rich in oil, would there be so much conflict and violence? Okay, so I guess because of Israel being the "holy land" and with all the religious differences in a culture there would still be "religious wars", but you can link some of those to oil still. Also, when Iraq was trying to take Kuwait in the Gulf War, why was this? Oil of course. Also, wealth is spread so unevenly throughout the population because the people with oil are incredibly wealthy, while everyone else is in poverty. After a while, the poor people get fed up, and retaliate, often with violence. If not for oil, the wealth would not be concentrated in the small population of rich oil barons, and the violent little rebel groups will not have formed. So oil obviously is connected to voilence and conflict in the Middle East.

This picture shows that when we there is lots of oil people are happy and peaceful but then when there is not oil people are starting wars to get more oil for themselves.