Crude Impact Essay - Dalyn Valentin

The U.S obtains more than 84% of its energy from fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. This is because people rely on it to heat their homes, power industries, run vehicles, manufacturing, and provision of electricity. It is apparent that the country’s transportation industry highly depends on conventional petroleum oil, which is responsible for global warming, thus threatening economic opulence and national security. Apart from that, increasing consumption of fossil fuels have elevated health problems in the state, destroyed wild places, and polluted the environment. After conducting Environmental Impact Assessment, projections showed that the world energy consumption would increase by more than 56% between 2010 and 2040. However, fossil fuels will cater for more than 80% of the total energy used in 2040. Sadly, it will be a trajectory to alter the world’s climate, as well as, weaken the global security environment. Importantly, the rate at which the US relies on fossil fuels needs to reduce since it has adverse effects on the planet’s supplies. The society needs to realize that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, thus taking millions of years to form (Huebner, 2003). Notably, the country can reduce dependency on fossil fuels by practicing energy conservation and efficiency,

Why are we as a global society so hooked on fossil fuels? Put simply, we can’t live without it. Few people-- outside of aspiring reality TV stars and the Amish-- would be willing to give up their precious electronics and

` The continuous use of fossil fuels is leading the Earth on a path to destruction. Generations of advancement and technological innovation being brought down to rubble. Natural disasters wreaking havoc on innocent people across the world. Temperatures soaring above 125℉ globally. These are the results of the excessive use of fossil fuels. A chief concern in the 21st century is global warming and climate change, and the continued use of fossil fuels for the technology and daily lives of humans is key to blame. Decades ago, these problems were much more daunting and seemingly unsolvable than they are today, with the use of alternative energy sources and new

Every single day we drive our cars to work, turn on the lights, and use our computers. All of these things use oil; the gas to drive, plastic in the cars and computers. Almost everything we use has something to do with oil. “The United states uses nearly 400 million gallons of oil every day moving people in automobiles, goods on freight trucks, air travel, rail and transit.”(Sierra Club 1) Many people don’t thing about all the things that we use today that has to use gas. When you fill up your cars gas tank, you’re putting in around 18 to 20 gallons of gas. But add up all the people in the United States and you got an astronomically huge amount of gas. But that’s not even half of what the number is, you still got air planes, trains, and not even included in the number above, the amount of oil used to run oil power plants that are in almost every state in the United States.”Americans send over $1 billion abroad every day to pay for oil.” (Sierra Club 1)Most people don’t get $1 billion in a life time. Yet we are spending $365

Coal was still efficient, but the massive space needed to burn it was only available in factories and large-scale transportation like trains. Oil was the miracle fuel people found to remove the complication that stood before them. Oil and coal are both the compressed remains of long deceased beasts unimaginable but unlike coal, oil has a higher energy density thus it burns more efficiently. Under this circumstance, oil became much more widely used. In the end, oil ended up with much better transportation infrastructure and became required in certain manufacturing process’ (Green World Investor (GWI) ). I use oil products every day, accompanying every other person on earth. Cars, trains, water bottles, cleaning products, computers, packaging, and even some furniture all use oil and oil products as a fuel source, or in the production of said object. All this oil usage equates to massive greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide is released from the refining process in addition to “hydrocarbons with traces of sulfur and other compounds” (GWI). These chemicals mix in the atmosphere to form acid rain, pollute rivers and kill thousands of fish, and devastate the environment through accidental spills and leaks. Equally important to this is the fact that the majority of oil is imported from some of the most tyrannical and oppressive dictatorships in the world (GWI). These countries are

Fossil fuels, or as some entrepreneurs call it “black gold”, are one of the most influential inanimate objects within our culture. It is able to cause economic shifts, alter ecological systems if it is not managed properly, is a major source of fuel for agriculture, transportation, and industrial mechanisms, and it originates from plant and animal fossils over thousands of years. Today, the United States is the number one producer of oil, and we have found new ways of extracting it from the earth, such as hydraulic fracturing. Processes like these have the potential to poison local water supplies and alter the topographical structure of a given ecosystem. The discovery of shale has helped gas companies rely less of foreign oils and control the global market. Since oil has become cheaper within the U.S, there are more SUV’s on the road than before and people are starting to drive longer distances. Oil companies are facing the problem of finding ways to store excess oil. While we as humans see fuels as a source of mobility and prosperity, we often detach ourselves from how ecologically damaging the extraction methods are, the social injustices and inequalities it can create within a society, and most importantly that it is a nonrenewable resource. The assemblage of fossil fuels take thousands of years to form which is well past a human lifetime. Even trying to perceive that amount of time is incomprehensible to us. The composition of fossil fuels are not necessarily made from complex materials, all that is required is that something dies and goes under heat and pressure for a long period of time. That means that at some point we can potentially be incorporated within the sludge that is “black gold”. I feel as though bennet would articulate that in order to grasp the full understanding of our relationship with fossil fuels that we must address that at some point we are

The environment is negatively affected be the burning of fossil fuels. The affects of the gases contribute to global warming, along with acid rain and polluted air. This pollution cuts short an estimated 30,000 American lives according to the Clean Air Task Force (Rich). The United States must stop using fossil fuels because the gases produce harm the environment we live causing harm to come all the citizens. “The future of energy production will

More than 95% of scientists agree that fossil fuels does and will continue to cause Earth's temperature to rise to an unhealthy extent. Prohibiting (or greatly limiting) the use of fossil fuels will help not only the environment but also our economies and society. By setting a global standard, we can gradually decrease our dependence on these harmful gasses. However, nations and corporations reluctance to comply with these proposed regulations will eventually cause a global catastrophe. If the only way to prove that this unwillingness can be detrimental to the globe's health is by showing them the consequences firsthand, then the next generation will be negatively impacted by our

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (2015) reports that the United States consumed approximately 19.4 million barrels of petroleum products daily, which calculated to an overall total of 7.08 billion barrels by the end of 2015 (para. 2). The United States population consumes a huge quantity of oil alone, in addition to all of the other fossil fuels that it also greatly depends on. Fossil fuels are a natural resource that is in limited supply, and they provide an efficient and consistent supply of power to communities all over the planet. Many people are pleased with the short-term advantages these

Since, fossil fuels have been a part of our environment for some time now, they have been the main resource we’ve needed and used to keep our country running. The truth of the matter is, since we obtain fossil fuels from plants and animals that lived millions of years ago they will soon be gone. As indicated by Eric McLamb, founder, chief executive officer, and president of the ecology communications group, “The problem is fossil fuels are nonrenewable. They are limited in supply and will one day be depleted.” People realize that the crisis of running out of fossil fuels is upon us; however, these same people are timid about moving on to renewable energy. One main reason is because individuals do not believe renewable energy is cost efficient. For instance, solar energy is known to be fairly expensive, particularly more expensive than the conventional energy used now, which makes people uncertain about changing to renewable energy.

Production of these resources also causes damage to the environment. This can be either through the damage caused by the extraction of the resource or the disposal of them at the end of their life span (Royal Automobile Club, 2013). The drilling and extraction of oil is quite complex and can leave numerous opportunities for error or accidents. Contamination is eminent via the large waste pits, often left unlined and open affecting many of the surrounding water sources. Flames from burning the natural gas found in oil fields also cause significant air pollution. Oil spills, accidents and illegal dumping of oil barrels lead to devastating ecological and health consequences that can

Coal and natural gas are the United States’ main fossil fuels used as energy sources. These fossil fuels both contain mixtures of hydrocarbons, which is a chemical compound of carbon and hydrogen (Olah, 2005). Currently, fossil fuels provide eighty-five percent of commercial energy, such as businesses, worldwide and this eighty-five percent does not even account for residential use. Imagine if the residential energy use was accounted for in that eighty-five percent (Davison, 2007). According to Goodell (2006), “Between 1950 and 2000, the world population increased by 140 percent and fossil fuel consumption increased by 400 percent. By 2030, the world’s demand for energy is expected to more than double,” with most of the electricity

With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century, we saw the large-scale use of fossil fuels (such as Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal) for industrial activities (factories, electricity). These activities created jobs and over the years people moved from rural areas to cities. In the present day we use these fossil fuels on a much larger scale to power almost every thing, which in turn let out millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each day increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which creates more heat coming down to the earth, melting our polar ice capes and raising sea levels. Further heated seas will increase the number and intensity of hurricanes and other climatic natural disasters around the world (for example

These fossil fuels serve to be very beneficial for our use and need for energy. The accessibility of these energy sources are relatively abundant in our environment. These sources of energy, specifically crude oil for example, are found in abundance underground in certain areas. For example, while there is not huge oil sources underground everywhere, there are large rigs in certain areas of the world that supply an astronomical amount of crude oil for our use. Places such as Saudi Arabia and Canada have been the 2 largest providers of non-renewable oil for the US. Similarly, there are many places in the US that non-renewable resources like oil and coal have been tapped into. These oil rigs and coal mines are being used at a rate that some worry is not sustainable, or responsible. The oil rigs, in particular, produce a real economic boom as well as the benefit to fulfill our energy needs. For example, back when gasoline was 4 dollars a gallon, it

Fossil fuels are essential to life on earth as we know it today. Our world would certainly be much different if it weren’t for such seemingly simple things such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These basic elements of life on earth may not seem like a major concern to some people until we put into perspective how they have shaped our world today. Civilizations have been built, economies have risen and crumbled, and even wars have been fought over these precious fossil fuels. However, these fossil fuels serve us in ways we may never truly appreciate, as long as we use them as recklessly as we do now. The major entity about fossil fuels is concerning their longevity and permanence in our world, and we all know, they will be around forever.