The World Without Oil : A World Without Oil

With gas prices on a slow rise it is no surprise that the United States has a huge dependency on oil. In a recent statistic from the US Energy Information Administration stated that in 2012 alone roughly 10.6 million barrels of petroleum were imported into the US daily. Most recently BP was accused of spilling approximately 470 to 1228 gallons of oil. And in recent past the major oil spill with in the Gulf of Mexico which occurred in 2010 that is by many is considered to be the worst oil spill in US history. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil was leaked into the Gulf coast. Being detrimental to not only wildlife but also has a huge impact on the planets general population as well. Most if not all forms of transportation with a large portion being cars run on oil and little alternatives to what can be used as a substitute. With such a high dependency on oil as well as being a high risk factor why hasn’t the US looked to other forms of energy that are both clean and efficient? Many countries have found alternative ways to supply energy. Most notably Sweden, in which in later years has been noted to actually import waste to use for their energy. If a viable energy alternative is not implemented then dependency on oil may inevitably deteriorate the infrastructure in which this country is operated upon as well as consequently negatively affect natural resources and wildlife to a point in which it will be near impossible to rehabilitate.

Oil production is crucial for humans. Overall, 33 out of 48 countries have now hit a peak in oil production, resulting that oil is going to hit a decline in production. This peak is in countries such as Mexico and Russia, potentially signifying the end of the Industrial revolution. However, oil itself is not running out, just the rich, thick oils, that are high quality. In the near future, the only oil that Earth will have will be thin, and not good enough to use in motor vehicles or for electricity. Additionally, cheap and easy to extract oil will be at a decline, and also oil will be in unaccessible places, or within dangerous areas. Oil production needs to stay at pace with the human demand.

Many critics argue that oil has had too big an impact to our society that we have become too dependant on it. The fact that oil is a non-renewable resource makes us more vulnerable for the inevitable change in the future. However, oil is arguably the best energy provider in our generation. It is cheap and easy to develop and transport. It is highly efficient (compared to alternative sources of energy). To simply discontinue the development of the oil sands would leave huge consequences. The global economy would suffer, as well as, possibly, the quality of lives of people. The unlimited "need" for oil in our society cannot be limited by government decisions. Rather than changing an

In the year 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed a staggering 6.89 billion barrels of oil (U.S.EIA). Which in fact, equates to 18.89 million barrels being consumed every single day. That is a vast amount of petroleum products being consumed on a daily national level. If the calculation is made, based on a barrel equaling forty two gallons, it would come out to 289,583,700,000 gallons per year, or 793,380,000 gallons per day. The amount is incredible, almost unbelievable. If the United States continues its use of oil at this rate, the supply will only last another forty years. With more and more cars being on the road and operating machinery performing tasks, the supply of petroleum will not be able to meet demand forever. As our use of fossil fuels increases, so does our need for a new source of renewable energy.

The spectrums of oil spill issues are diverse and large. They range from environmental issue to economic, ecological, ethical, politics and policies. Among many other oil spills, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, occurred on April 20, 2010 was recorded as the greatest environmental disaster in our history (BP leak the world's worst accidental oil spill, 2010).

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.

Deepwater horizon oil spill, also known as a BP oil spill. The spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010 “An oil well in the Gulf of Mexico failed, causing what has been called the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history and taking the

In fact, of the tens of millions of gallons of oil that enter North American oceans each year due to human activities, only 8 percent comes from tanker or oil pipeline spills, according to the 2003 book Oil in the Sea III (Transportation Research Board and National Research Council) by the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, which is still considered the authority on oil-spill data (Geographic).” Oil ends up in oceans very frequently, and is extremely bad for both marine wildlife and the environment as a

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

In my country, we know wealth is wasted, but under Islamic policies, there is some balance. Oil wealth is distributed just enough to keep citizens happy. Obviously many of the other oil leaders have not learned this lesson. How can the world ignore the stories here. Most of them have been happening over long periods of time. I have to say, I am ashamed of the citizens of the world right now. We buy and buy and have no concern about where all this “stuff” comes from. But with oil, we do have some idea of the dangers of using it. The BP spill was watched by the world. The Iraq wars were related to oil, especially when Saddam Hussein set the Kuwait oil wells on fire. We know Nigeria has oil, but is a terrible place to live. Where did all the oil go? Where is the World Trade Organization in all of this. The international community goes crazy when there are copyright violations. Why not human rights violations in the name of oil? If Peter Maass is correct and we have less reserves than expected, how violent will people become to control the last bit of oil left? We have put off this dilemma we thought into the future, but this could happen in our lifetime. Let us learn the lesson from Maas, and work harder to change our ways if we

For the past several decades we have been relying on oil as our major source of energy. It is oil that driven the industrial revolution and turn the global economy into what it is right now. However, the increasing rate of our reliance and hunger for oil has been causing us devastating problems so awful that we can’t afford to ignore it anymore. It is a fact that the global oil reserve won’t run dry in either today or tomorrow but we are running out of supply. I believe that oil should not be the only major source of energy because of the following reasons, first, the

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the largest oil spill in history, where approximately 5 million barrels were leaked over a span of 87 days. This spill can be considered one of the most detrimental environmental disasters in American history. Only about 25% of the oil was accounted for, leaving somewhere around 3.75 million barrels of oil in surrounding ecosystems.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The oil rig sank a day-and-a-half later. The spill was referred to as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and BP oil disaster. It was first said that little oil had actually leaked into the ocean but a little over a month later the estimate was 12,000-19,000 barrels of crude oil being leaked per day. Many attempts were made to stop the leak but all failed until they capped the leak on July 15, 2010, and on September 19 the federal government declared the well “effectively dead.” In the three months that it took to finally put a stop the leak, 4.9 million barrels of oil were

The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).

Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).