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Is Oil Evil?

Is Oil Evil?
1) Is your personal consumption of oil part of the problem?
2) What impact does oil have on our environment?
3) Are there any viable energy alternatives?
Live Link:
4) Is there a connection between oil and violence in the Middle East?
Sources:
Contributors:

Picture from: http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/2004Chappatte/main.asp

1) Is your personal consumption of oil part of the problem?

Our consumption of oil is the problem. The reason why the West is so dependent of on oil is because of the fact that we all use oil in some way everyday. In Michigan, our cities are laid out so that we have to use are cars to get anywhere, and we don’t have a public transportation system. For these reasons we need oil to get around. People are also buying large SUVs and pick up trucks. But oil is not only used for energy. Plastic is made from oil as well. It is very cheap and widely used. Most children’s toys are made of plastic, we use plastic forks and knives, and we get a plastic bag every time we leave the grocery store. Some other examples of oil based products include: Solvents such as those used in paints, lacquers, and printing inks, Lubricating oils and grease, petroleum jelly (which can be found in some medicines and toiletries and can be used in candy-making, packaging, candles, matches and polish), and asphalt. Petroleum is also used in the textile industry. So although you might not drive a car or have an SUV you still use petroleum every day of your life. Aarti and I both use petroleum in our lives as well. We both where clothing every single day, we both use plastic products everyday, and us both take medicine when we are sick. My parents drive me to school, and Aarti recently painted her room. So our personal consumption of oil is part of the problem. In fact it is the problem. You might think that you don’t consume a lot of oil but the problem is that you are not the only one that does this. There are six billion people in the world and some may use more oil then others but in the end we all have to cut our consumption of oil in order to make a difference. - Cristina

2) What impact does oil have on our environment?

Oil has had direct and indirect consequences, mostly bad ones, on today’s environment vastly due to the massive demand that it attracts. Oil is one of the key factors that have given rise to human modernization. It has provided us with an easier way to transport, and easier way to heat and cook, and, much to our advantage, an easier way to live. Oil has made our situation, as human beings a lot superior than what it used to be; however this same resource has resulted in making life a lot more difficult for our planet. For instance, let’s take global warming. This issue is much debated about and not too many people are on the same side on whether it has been influenced by us or is it simply nature taking its course. Honestly, do you really expect us to believe that this rapid climate change, the ice-caps melting, and the insane number of animal species dying out is all just mere coincidence? We think not. Our continuous want for oil and consequently more products has contributed, however not entirely, to global warming. The burning of fossil fuels gives off tons off carbon-dioxide, a major greenhouse gas that encourages global warming like no other. Oil has also made driving cars, heating houses, traveling to far away places, immensely more affordable and seemingly effortless. This has dramatically increased air pollution and the emissions of greenhouse gases, which encourages global warming.

Also, oil has had many direct influences on our environment, especially oil spills and petroleum waste in drains and gutters from large factories. Think about it? All this oil eventually flows into open water, in which hopefully, some habitats exist. (Unless we’ve destroyed them all already) All these species who feed on this habitat die out and steadily put a dent in the food chain, unbalancing life on Earth. An overdependence and somewhat of an abundance of anything leads to destruction of the moral right to use it, and this is what has happened in regards to oil in the last few decades. Currently, it would be considered very stupid and unreasonable to say that the shortage of oil that we are up against might actually do some good, but in the long run, we believe it will.- Aarti

Picture from: http://libertywire.blogspot.com/2006/02/addicted-to-what.html

3) Are there any viable energy alternatives?

A lot of the oil that we use goes into gasoline for automobiles and other transport. Americans love cars. We don’t have the system, nor the patience, to develop a good public transportation system throughout the country. Honestly, Cristina and I think it’s practically impossible to get Americans to reduce the amount they drive. For instance, I live really close to our school, and usually walk over, but trust me, if I had a car, you definitely wouldn't see me crossing the road. However, making cars with a higher mileage is something we are easily capable of, especially with the added incentive of rising gasoline prices. Also, we should deveop and easier, more affordable way to power our vehicles using electricity, ethanol, (adressed below), and hydrogen.

Cars are not the only issue though, we heat our houses, cook food and use oil in many products that we need. Increasing gas mileage isn’t enough, we need to explore and make energy alternatives cheap for the common people. First, the most talked about alternative- biofuels. Biofuels are energy sources made basically from plants, such as corn and even sugarcane. An example of this is ethanol. This seems to be a great idea since this cuts down the effect of global warming, it is comparable, if not completely, to gasoline, and provides the agricultural industry with jobs. It all sounds good, right? Well, not the way it is now. It is more expensive, provides less energy than gas, and it available only in a few regions of the U.S. Also, it's not all that environmentally friendly becuse if this idea ever becomes popular, we would have to grow insane amounts of corn. In order to produce enough corn, we would have to use lots and lots of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals which would cause the environment to suffer. Another energy alternative is wind energy. Most people that we talked to seemed unconvinced with this plan, since you can’t always find wind. However, there are many advantages that are necessary to consider: infinite supply (in general), and that wind energy does not contribute to pollution whatsoever. A third option is gaining energy through running water, hydroelectricity. This is when turbines are set up on a slope with constant running water, thus rotating, and this movement is then converted into useful energy. It seems easy right? It depends. For instance, in India, a place full of rivers, hydroelectricity is very easy to collect and is their main source of energy, other than coal. It’s easy to install, requiring only a slope of one meter and a supply of water. This has already led to the growth and development of many villages. However, this is not reasonable for many other parts of the world where running water is hard to find, for example, in a desert. For them solar energy might work! Solar energy is energy you get from the Sun. It is environmentally friendly, low maintenance and it saves you money. (In the end) There are a few cons though, it’s very hard to begin to get involved with solar energy because it is very hard to install and it’s not always sunny everywhere.

Overall, we believe that energy alternatives DO exist, but we really need to look for more since each one has one disadvantage to each advantage. Science is growing at a rapid rate, and we believe/hope that people will begin to put their priorities where they need to be. This idea is clearly represented by this statement made by the 11 National Science Academics, “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action." (Greenpeace par.3) - Aarti

Picture from: http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/uploads/ethanol.gif

Live Link:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47742811.cms

This article shows us what other parts of the world, in this case China, are doing to reduce their overdependency on oil. In China, they are planning to expand their hydro-electricity production with plans of flooding the reservoir (Three Gogres Dam), and turing it into one of the largest hydro-electricity projects today. There have been disadvantages, such as the displacement of 600,000 people, but in the end, they belive this is going to help them to expand on their energy alternatives.

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

We think that oil is one of the main sources of fighting in the Middle East. But it is masked behind religion. The Middle East is a very diverse region with many religions. The ones we keep hearing about in the news are Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. These religions have similar roots but they are very hostile towards each other. This is mainly because of poor decisions made by the Western powers specifically the formation of the state of Israel. Now if these hostilities were in any other region of the world they probably wouldn’t be all over the news. But because of the fact that a quarter of the world’s oil is in these areas, any tension in this region would cause rippled effects across the world’s economy. And as the tension increases so does the price of oil. So because of the fact that the West is so dependent on oil any increase in price would of course greatly affect our economy. Therefore most of the Western powers are very involved in peace efforts and unfortunately in wars. All of these efforts so far have been unfruitful. In any case our leaders must keep trying because at the moment oil prices are still rising, reaching a record breaking $100 per barrel.

But these kinds of events can be seen throughout history as well. A great example of this is the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Compared to its size Kuwait has a lot of oil! Now what Saddam Hussein thought was that Kuwait rightfully belonged to Iraq and that it was tolen from them by the British colonialists in the 1920s. So they invaded. Now this kind of scenario has happened before in many different countries. In most cases the U.N. might get involved but other then that no real outside help is really given. But because of the large oil reserves in Kuwait the West reacted by sending in thousands of troops to help defeat the Iraqis. In the end they did win and the economy recovered.

So in the end oil does have a large part in Middle-Eastern conflicts. It is a very diverse region so their religions usually clash. But the real reason why so many nations around the world try to help keep the peace in this region is because of the fact that most of the world is dependent on oil and if the oil is no longer safe or can no longer be obtained our economy would suffer greatly. Therefore in the end Aarti and I both believe that oil plays a major role in the violence in the Middle East because of its scarcity and because it is a necessity. - Cristina