Is Oil Evil?

 

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

 

Is your personal oil consumption a problem?

 

People might not think their personal consumption of oil is that big of a problem, but if you take into account the 300 million U.S. citizen, the problem seems much more severe. In Septemember of 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Inforamation Administry, U.S. has imported about 309.442 million barrels, thats about 10.315 million barrels per day! U.S. and its citizens have been depending way too much on oil and other non-renewable resources. As you can see by the chart below, the U.S.'s "hunger" for oil has gone up significantly over the past 7 years. Because we are so dependent on oil, large oil producing countries can do whatever they want to U.S. and we would have to agree, or they would just cut their oil trade with U.S. and our economy would collapse.

U.S. Crude Oil Imports from All Countries (Thousand Barrels)
 
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
 2000 242,698 241,236 272,503 280,228 281,621 286,000 291,346 308,103 284,528 278,052 267,387 286,114
  2001 276,911 241,046 297,683 303,320 306,450 273,160 296,127 290,870 280,182 285,531 279,594 274,020
  2002 269,965 245,094 272,781 279,024 289,026 279,718 284,708 295,874 263,909 295,480 289,623 270,973
  2003 267,623 237,278 285,994 297,835 314,748 301,151 311,061 310,705 308,615 311,950 280,530 300,206
  2004 289,762 270,188 312,739 303,443 324,012 315,989 319,253 324,258 290,923 321,222 307,154 313,120
 
  2005 309,901 286,124 317,497 306,734 323,400 322,953 321,697 322,526 274,650 292,751 307,852 309,886
  2006 302,761 279,530 302,241 295,774 319,400 321,369 317,114 327,476 321,298 313,272 296,627 296,219
  2007 315,967 253,372 320,793 305,431 319,040 299,477 306,950 318,808 309,442      

By Sam D. 12/7/07

 

What impact does oil have on our enviroment?

     Oil is an important part of our world, it is used for things that help us in our everyday lives.  However, it also hurts our enviorment.  For example, there are many oil drills in the Arctic Refuge.  Those holes risk destroying the home of hundreds of types of animals.  The ANWR wants to build more oil mining in the coastal plains, which would block animal movements, and disturb some species.  Also, toxic waste from the pipelines that would be built would be released into the wetlands.  Wildlife, including fish, would have been basically taken away because of all the gravel that they would take.  This is just one example of what would happen, but there are many more around the world that are currently happening because of this stuff.

 http://www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/Photo_Gallery/WED_2007/Zoom/UNEP073-1.jpg

http://www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/Photo_Gallery/WED_2007/Zoom/UNEP073-1.jpg

The smoke polutes the air, and the oil is leaking into the ocean, which hurts the fish, and the oil takes a very long time to go away.

 

By David D. 12/8/07

 

Are there any viable energy alternatives?

 There are many viable energy alternatives including solar energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectric energy, and wind power. See More

 

Solar Energy- Solar Energy uses the energy from the sun, and turns it in to elecricity, ussually by releasing energy from photons, emmited by the sun, with a photovoltaic cell, or solar cell, to generate electircity. Solar energy is a renewable resource, and using solar energy does not emit any air or water polution, only the production of photovoltaic cells are needed. This would be especially beneficial for areas such as Florida, California and places near the equator. Below is an example of photovoltaic cells in California.

http://www.rainorshinepower.com/assets/RoS%20images/grid%20tied%20solar.jpg

http://www.rainorshinepower.com/assets/RoS%20images/grid%20tied%20solar.jpg

 

Geothermal Energy- Geothermal energy harnesses the energy from the hot steam or water from beneath the Earth's surface to turn a turbine, which then generates electricity. Geothermal energy is a renewable resource, and produces only 1-3% of CO2 as fossil fuels, and creates 97% less acid rain than fossil fuels. This would be most beneficial for areas near the ring of fire. The picture below shows how geothermal energy is harnessed.

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/geowells.jpeg

http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/geowells.jpeg

 

Hydroelectric Energy- Hydroelectric energy uses the pressure of water in a resevoir created by a dam to turn a turbine near the bottom of the dam to generate electricity. Hydroelectric energy is a renewable resource, because it uses gravity and water, no pollutant are released. To harness Hydroelectric energy needs to create a resevoir with a dam, this could destroy the ecosystem down stream, because this will decrease the amount of water downsteam. Hydroelectric energy is most beneficial for areas with many fast flowing rivers. The picture below shows how hydroelectricity works.

Animation of a hydroelectric power plant in a dam

 

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks.html

 

Wind Power- Wind power uses the movement of air to turn blades which then turns turbines and generate electricity. Wind power is a clean and renewable resource, but it may have a negative effect on local bird population, and it takes up a large are of land for enough energy to be produced for everyday use, as well as the high cost for heavy equipment needed to build a wind mill. Wind power is most beneficial in areas like California where there are fast moving wind. The picture below shows which areas are most beneficial for wind energy.

The image “http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/images/graph_we_fig1.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/images/graph_we_fig1.gif

 

Nuclear Energy- Nuclear Energy produces much more energy than all the renewable energy sources listed above, but its no where near as clean. Nuclear energy create radioactive waste which is hard to dispose of. The radioactivity of the waste products will drop by 99.9% in 40 years, but it is still highly dangerous. Ths is exactly why nuclear energy should not be used in the future. If we continue using Nuclear Energy, the nuclear waste would build up faster than we actually use up nuclear fuel, and there wouldn't be any more place to store these radioactive materials. There are many misconseptions about nuclear power plant. The plants are not dangerous at all, most people believe that if a nuclear power plant has a nuclear melt down, it will cause a nuclear explosion, but that's not true. The only dangerous thing from nuclear reactors are the highly radioactive waste they produce. The picture below shows the U.S.'s nuclear power plant locations.

http://www.solcomhouse.com/Enernuc.gif

http://www.solcomhouse.com/Enernuc.gif

By Sam D. 12/12/07

 

 

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

   Yes, there is definitely a connection between the two.  We know that there is a connection because the U.S. is pretty much controlling the oil industry in Iraq, which is one of our main oil producers.  In the bombing of 9-11, over half of the suicidal terrorists were Saudi Arabian, but we did not invade them.  Why?  Well most people think it's because they are the largest oil producing country in the world, and we are afraid that if we invaded Saudi Arabia, we would get our oil supply cut off, which would severely hurt our country's economy.  Even though nobody would ever admit this, most people think Bush invaded Iraq so that we could stop them from cutting off our oil supply.  Iraq is also a key oil contributer to the U.S., so our economy would take a massive blow if that supply was cut off.  So yes, there is a connection between oil and violence in the middle east. U.S. in a way is also fueling terrorist groups like al Qaeda. al Qaeda get most of its money from local donations from rich businessmen in the Middle East coutries like Saudi Arabia. Where did the businessmen get their money? they get it form oil. The U.S. buys billions of barrels of oil each year from these businessmen who then donate the money they got from U.S. to terrorist groups which then attacks U.S. with the money they got.

 

refinery in Ras Tanera, Saudi Arabia

 

 

 

By David D. 12/12/07

 

Sources:

  1. http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mcrimus1m.htm
  2. http://www.impactpress.com/articles/aprmay01/oil040501.html
  3. http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/geothermal.html
  4. http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/solar.html
  5. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/hyhowworks.html
  6. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wind+energy&btnG=Search
  7. http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/non-renewable/nuclear.html
  8. http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=26031&rendTypeId=4

 

 

 

 

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  • Recent comments:
    Karunakar S.:Your blog was put together very nicely. Your information seemed to be clear and concise. Overall I think that the blog is very good, and all of the information that you have listed is abosolute.
    Sam D:Nuclear fuel is what you put inside the nuclear reactor to fuel the nuclear reaction. We use mostly Uranium right now in our fission reactors.
    Florian B.:I forgot to thank you for the many links that you listed. some of them are really interesting. But I am mising the contributers^^. And Sam,I really think you are doing a great job by answereing or commenting comments of others on your blog so often. I researched and answered your question on our blog, too.
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