How The Constant Drilling For Oil And Extraction Of Minerals

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater

For centuries, humans have had the unsatisfiable desire for more. This is seen quite often throughout history, with a common characteristic being that the environment or some people are negatively affected, usually with long­term effects, in mankind’s quest to satisfy their lust. A modern day example of this is seen in Alberta’s oil sands, as well as in James Cameron’s science­­fiction film Avatar. Alberta oil sands have the third largest oil reserves in the world, making up over 20% of Alberta. The oil industry is a staple part of our economy, as we rely heavily on it. However, in order to get to the bitumen­­rich oil sands, countless trees have been cut down, and many people in northern Alberta have been affected, including over 20 indigenous groups.

Americans have been drilling for oil for more than half of their existence. Before the 1850’s oil was of little use and had no market for commerce as there was not one overwhelming use for it. Until around the 1850’s, when technology advanced, with it sparking search for one of the most sought after natural resources that countries would later go to war over, petroleum oil. Early inventions like the kerosene lamp provided a new stable home necessity to live by, increasing the demand for crude oil. This would be met in part by Colonel Edwin Drake, who drilled the first successful oil well in 1858. While Drake’s invention for extracting crude oil from the ground would bring about a new era for industrialization, his “black gold” would bring about an even larger effect, the environmental disasters caused by man. For over one hundred and fifty years of drilling for oil, both on shore and offshore, has led to some of the worst catastrophes to both nature and mankind. While many of these catastrophes have led to the deaths of hundreds of crew members, they have also led to long lasting effects on the environment, local and national economies, legislation, regulations, and human morale. These following effects can be seen in the most recent and most contaminated marine oil spill in history. To the media and public it’s known as the British Petroleum offshore drilling oil spill in 2010.

Indigenous rights in Brazil have been very vague throughout the years and were difficult to obtain since many indigenous tribes were seen as an inferior class. There are around 900,000 indigenous people with a total of 240 tribes in Brazil in contrast to the 11 million indigenous people that lived there before the European colonist arrived. It was predicted that 90% died in the first years from diseases that they were not exposed to, such as the flu and smallpox, and the rest who survived the diseases were enslaved. Brazil has one third of the world’s rainforest and half of the amazon forest, but with the expansion of neoliberal policies deforestation has become a serious problem. According to Brazilian authorities, the rubber and cattle industries are responsible for 80% of the deforestation (COHA). This has evidently affected many indigenous communities that lived in the Amazon forest, displacing them from their lands and exploiting them for hard labor. By the 1950s, many predicted that the indigenous population in Brazil would disappear, but they have been able to recover by becoming active in the movement against neoliberal policies and their rights as human.

The damage caused by extraction of these oil sands is not a theoretical problem. Over the past sixteen years more than two million acres of the Canadian boreal forest has been cleared to extract these sands (Nikiforuk). Not only does the extraction process cut down trees it also produces more greenhouse gasses than the extraction of crude oil, and leaves polluted residue across the extraction sight. These contaminants then spread to surrounding bodies of water. Once these contaminants have reached these water supplies they have an immediate effect on wildlife. Fish have been found with cancerous growths in rivers near extraction sites (Forrest). From this we should infer that not only has this oil mining had a negative on wildlife, but it could also pose health risks to local residents near the extraction sites. Though there is little Americans can do to prevent Canada’s current extraction. By not installing the

These areas of concern to environmentalist include: (1) The protection of the Porcupine caribou herd, polar bears, musk oxen, grizzly bears and many other forms of diverse wildlife that could be adversely affected by the oil exploration. (2) Preservation of the land itself and the local communities culture that has supported a thousand generations of native Alaskans. (3) That there is only enough oil in this region to supply America’s needs for six months. The environmentalist and the proponents for oil drilling continue to pursue their arguments, each one deciding that their argument is more popular to the American people.

Still people make the argument that oil is just too important to stop drilling and that if anything we should drill more. Again author Margaret Haerens talks about how “According to the nation academy of Sciences, current cleanup methods can only remove a small fraction of the oil spilled into the ocean, leaving the remaining oil to continue affecting ocean ecosystems over time” (126). The long term impacts of offshore spills continue to corrupt the oceans and who knows when they will completely be gone. The effects of the oil directly on sea life such as sea birds, fish, shellfish, and other sea life are extremely dangers. “Studies have shown that tiny amounts of oil – as little as one part per billion – can harm pink salmon and cause their eggs to fail” (Haerens Margaret). Imagine swimming in the ocean when a large pool of toxic oils comes floating along right into you when you are trying to enjoy a day at the beach. Not only is offshore drilling have one of the longest lasting ecological impacts on society and living things on and off shore, it effects our economy as well.

In this set of materials, the reading passage describes the harmful effects of drilling oil in Alaska. In the lecture the professor’s view on this issue is therefore different from the one expressed in the reading. According to the reading, drilling in Alaska affects ecosystem of the area and livelihood of the people who live there negatively. However, the professor casts doubt on this view with several points.

Indigenous people, the whistleblowers in this situation, exposing the pollution and destruction of the environment that they see around them, are very committed to and believe strongly in the protection of and the blessings of nature. They are an example of complicating evidence to the binary about dominance and submission: it is not all people who exact their dominance and their dangerous economic practices on nature, it is singularly the people who are using and abusing nature as a part of their economic growth and development. Ultimately, people who become protectors of the land, and who fight against the ways of the economically strong will be nature’s answer to resisting human domination. Industry relies heavily on natural resources, and so when the humans of the world do not allow industry to exploit nature for their own gain, the binary between dominance and submission surrounding the actions of humans will be

In Fentiman article, talks about an ethnographer who is studying a village in Oloma. She points out some of the resources that they are lacking that is causing uproar within this village. Oil is a commodity and when it was discovered in this village it changed everything. The community was experiencing an environmental and cultural degradation. The oil industry has impacted they’re livelihood. They were able to fish because the oil had flowed into the rivers. Their land was being destroyed and they were unhappy. Between the two readings from Fentiman and Perlezan and Johnson, it’s an example of how resources have an affected on people’s lives in terms of having that need and want of something to the point where you don’t care how it affects

So in conclusion, the U.S. Congress and Illinois Congressman Dale Righter should think when finding new places to drill for oil in the US, they need suggestions by people for new ways to help drill for oil, generate electricity, and creating jobs. Then that in turn would help reduce the dependency on foreign oil. The U.S. has technology that they could use to try to find the places to mine coal and build more nuclear power plants. Does the U.S. not have the money to try these things, not interested in drilling here, or just wanting to save it for when they really need it? They will have trial and error drilling in places, but it can be done. For future generations, the young people of today will need to learn how to reduce or not to depend

Every time an oil spill happens it puts indigenous communities at risk. The largest spill that year was reported in the community of Loreto, coating over 16,000 square meters of the Amazon rainforest. Many of

Oil Drilling has many effects on the environment from the air we breathe to the oceans that inhabit many species. While one of the outcomes of oil drilling is money, it is forgotten that money won’t help repair all of the damage that is done to mother nature. Not only does the outcome of drilling for fossil fuels affect the oceans, rainforest, etc. it also has an effect on local business’ and the health of humans. If people want change, they need to be the

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.