Is Oil Evil?

 

by

Stephanie G. and Anita V.

 

 

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

 

 

Of course my personal consumption of oil is not the problem!  The approximately forty gallons of gasoline my family uses about once a week is not the major consumer of oil.  The problem is with the United States as a whole.  Check this link out.  It has a chart on the page that ranks the top consumers of oil.  Not very surprisingly, the U.S. is the top consumer of oil by a vast majority.  But by how much of a majority is the U.S. the dominating consumer of the world market for oil?  According to that source, the U.S. consumes 20,588,000 barrels of oil a day.  The second greatest consumer of oil is China.  China uses only 7,274,000 barrels of oil a day.  In simple terms, the U.S. uses almost three times as much oil as the next top consumer.  May I yet again emphasizes the fact that my family's measly 5.7 gallons (40 gallons per week divided by 7 days in the week) is not the major problem with oil.  The problem is that all of us Americans together are consuming far too much oil a day.  As a country we need to make changes.  Pointing fingers at small families will get us nowhere.

 

 

 

This is a link to a group of tables that show the worldwide consumption and production of petroleum products around the world.

 

The citation for this source is this:

Energy Information Association.  2006.  U.S. Department of Energy.  7 Dec.       2007 <http://www.eia.doe.gov/ emeu/cabs/topworldtables1_2.htm>.

 

-Stephanie G.  12/7/07

 

 

 

2. What impact does oil have on our environment?

 

Oil has a lot of impact on our environment. Oil is the ultimate source of most of the pollution in the world right now. Many kinds of pollution in our world right now can be traced back to oil. As an example, let's take air pollution. Where does air pollution come from? Mostly from motor vehicles and factories, right? The fuel used by both factories and motor vehicles comes from oil, so, obviously, oil is currently having an impact on our environment through air pollution. Air pollution has been a major concern for our environment for several decades now, but even more so in recent years. The pollution from cars and factories consists mainly of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide rises into the atmosphere, producing what is known as the Greenhouse Effect (A greenhouse collects carbon dioxide, which prevents heat from escaping. The same thing is happening on Earth, only on a much larger scale.). This makes heat build up on Earth, causing various devastations, such as the polar ice caps melting. The entire process is called global warming, and could cause huge problems on our planet in as little as 13 years. Global warming, which is having a huge impact on our environment, comes from air pollution, which comes mainly from oil. Oil is greatly affecting the pollution in our world right now.

 

Oil also affects our environment in other ways. Oil spills that happen kill much of the ocean's marine life in that area, and changes the ocean for many years to come. Also, when oil deposits are found, oil wells have to be built in that area. This means the forest and wild life, and the people living there, have to be moved. This endangers wildlife, but also causes the people living there to move to other areas. This causes the places they move to to become overpopulated. This causes more air pollution, water pollution, light pollution, and kills more plant and animal life.

 

This picture shows what an oil spill looks like.

Oil spills are extremely harmful to the environment.

For more information on oil spills,

go to http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm.

 

 

A good site that I found with more information on the greenhouse effect and global warming is http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/. Check it out for more information on the topic.

 

-Anita Vasudevan  12/10/07

 

3.  Are there any viable energy alternatives?

 

In fact, there are many alternative energy sources for oil. These include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectric energy, and many more.

 

One energy alternative that is getting particular attention from scientists is geothermal energy. Geothermal energy uses the heat from the earth to create electricity. Heat is generated in the Earth's core by atoms under high pressure. This heat makes its way up to the Earth's crust in the form of volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers, which all get their heat from magma. In some places, the magma heats groundwater, which then becomes steam that can be used to turn turbines that generate electricity. Geothermal energy can be used for heating systems and electricity.

 

Another viable energy source is wind energy. Wind energy is generated by giant wind turbines. Wind turbines have blades that turn when the wind blows, and turns the gear box inside that then turns the generator inside, creating electricity. Currently, Denmark is the producer of most wind energy in the world, with over 20% of its electricity provided by wind. Click HERE for a link for more information on Denmark's wind energy. 

 

Wind turbines are used to generate electricity

from wind. Wind turbines are usually

positioned on or near water, because there

is more wind near water than inland.

 

Solar energy is also becoming more widely used as environment awareness begins to spread. Solar energy can be used in two ways, either as heat or as electricity. Electricity is produced using sunlight with photovoltaic devices. Solar energy is collected by silicon solar panels that convert photons into electrons using a solar cell. The electrons are channeled to produce electricity. Solar energy is also used to heat swimming pools, houses, and buildings. Here is a good link with more information on solar energy.

 

-Anita Vasudevan

 12/13/07

 

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

 

Of course there is!  Within the Middle East there has already been conflict over oil.  Just look at the Iraq-Kuwait War.  Kuwait was pumping oil out of Iraqi wells, so Iraq went and took over their country and burned over 600 of their oil wells.  TI was catastrophic, jsut look at the picture of the firey infernos below.  Also, look at the below link to a news article from BBC News.  It's about how Iran declared a ration on the fuel for privately owned cars and the people started rioting.  However, oil is not the only cause of conclict in the Middle East.  The conflicts are due to a great number of reasons including prejudice, desire for revenge of past injustices, poverty, and deep religious beliefs against other religions.  As a whole all of the little reasons to fight eachother become the main reason.  So, from that point of view, oil is not the cause of only cause of violence in the Middle East, but it is one of them. 

 

This is a link to BBC's article about the roits in Iran from the oil rationing.

 

Source Citation:

 

"Iran Fuel Rations Spark Violence."  27 June 2007.  BBC News.  15 Dec. 2007.  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6243644.stm>.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: 

Burning oil well in Kuwait.  (Online Image).  Available <http://www.cnn.com/2003/

WORLD/meast/01/03/sproject.irq.kuwait.oil.fires/index.html>.  15 December

           2007.

 

-Stephanie G.  12/11/07

 

 

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