Oil, a simple resource that builds up much of the world's economy both directly, and indirectly through vehicles, electricity and other things that need oil products. Throughout the world, people's daily lives revolve around oil whether it being a part of their job, or people using oil products to meet their daily basic needs. The problem is that people's lives revolve around it so much, that it is being used up quicker than we can think of ways to live without oil. Some people may think that humans can adapt to living without oil or that we will always have enough oil to survive. What they may not realize is that oil being used up can generate even more problems regarding oil. For example, oil prices are being driven up, and humans are resorting to more ways of getting oil like offshore, increasing numbers of drilling for oil on land, and even going to places like the Arctic. Some of these may not seem like they matter much in some peoples' views, but they could lead to bigger problems such as big environmental disasters, or maybe even to worse problems that could go as far as to change life as we know it. Oil is one of the best things that ever happened to humans' progressive technology, economies, and globalization, but it can also be the downfall of our current, modernized lives if we continue on the path we are headed.
Oil is used so much in our daily lives, but it cannot last forever. The amount of oil that is obtained and used every day is immense. In recent times, the world altogether was using 87 million barrels (the standard measurement for oil throughout the world) every single day, and each year that amount keeps growing. Oil is what is known as a non-renewable resource; it is not replenished as humans are using it up. There may be lots of oil all over the world but it is getting depleted faster than we can think of a way to live without it. If oil was gone, most people living in far northern places wouldn't be able to live there anymore, because of an inability to heat their house, inadequate insulation in their house from lack of oil products, or an impossibility of getting food because it cannot be transported far distances in big quantities. The same can be said for others in deserted locations such as islands far away from the main continents or any other place far away from civilization. Any sort of transportation used today revolves around either gasoline or electricity. Electricity is mainly generated by burning fossil fuels. Some people may say that solar, wind, hydroelectric, and a few other types of generating electricity would save us, but these types of generating electricity could never support the amount that humans use. Without oil, humans wouldn't be able to travel or communicate with others, transport goods and services, and certainly couldn't live independently. This would mean the end of all four kinds of globalization - political, economic, environmental, and social. Globalization, the very thing that leads us humans to transport oil products to others throughout the world, uses up those oil products in doing so and will lead itself to it's own demise if oil continues to be such a central part of our lives.
Oil prices can be something to complain about for lots of people leading their daily lives, but they could possibly lead to other problems if they continue to rise. Prices of oil can vary by small margins around the world, but a certain trend happens everywhere - oil prices rise. Over the past decade, oil has gone up and down through different times in each year, but they always continue to rise. Other than making people upset at times, this increase in price could effect poorer countries quite drastically, and chain to even worse problems for the world. Before talking about the problems, why are oil prices rising? The answer can be stated as this: most of Alberta's economy revolves around the oil industry, and the same can be said for other places around the world, especially in the middle east. The difference between these, is that the middle east does not have very stable government and therefore, has higher prices of oil. Another factor in the increase in price is that oil is being used up, and when there is less to offer, the prices must rise for big oil companies to continue making a profit. Those are what is leading into bigger problems such as this; people in poorer countries will not be able to afford an increase in price to pay for heat, gas, or electricity for their businesses, homes, or vehicles. As more businesses and economies from smaller places go under, this will impact world trade by larger countries not being able to get some products from the poorer countries that go out of business, especially if it is something they can't get at all in their own country (ex. Canada cannot grow rice, so they get it from Asia). This could mean that there are more restrictions on what people can get, or it could possibly lower economies of other countries. Oil prices eventually lower economies throughout the world and can lower peoples' quality of life.
The hunt for oil has increased within the past years as some oil reserves are running dry, and is expanding to places like under the ocean and even in the Arctic. This could raise some of the biggest environmental problems with oil, as it already has before in the past. With offshore drilling for oil, there have already been many blowouts. Some of them, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, and the oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, people are very familiar with, but what people don't know is that many smaller spills aren't even reported. Big companies going after oil offshore has already dumped millions of gallons of oil throughout our oceans. With the increased offshore oil drilling this will only increase, killing many sea creatures and polluting big areas of the ocean. If there is a large oil spill in the Arctic, it would be almost impossible to clean up because of the much colder waters and lots of ice cover. If we drill for oil in the Arctic, there could also possibly be toxins such as lead released into the water. Are toxins being released into the oceans a small price to pay for getting more oil? Many other people and myself think not. We cannot tolerate many more toxins being released into our oceans along with the inevitable oil spills polluting the ocean, or else it may become inhabitable for sea creatures or possibly unsafe to even enter. The environmental problems from offshore and Arctic oil drilling are impossible to ignore, and should be considered when deciding whether or not to drill.
As you now know, oil drives much of the world's economy and peoples' daily lives, increasing their quality of life, however, it comes at a large price. Not just the oil prices, but the environmental impacts, economic impacts, and social impacts. The big problem, is it seems impossible to fix. For example, if there is to be less environmental problems, there must be less production of oil, lowered economies, and increased prices of oil. All the problems are interconnected, and can only be solved if there is a way that us humans can survive without having our lives centered around oil so much, and if we get more jobs into other areas of work. If they are not solved, many disasters could happen. Either way, peoples' daily lives will be impacted all over the world, so change seems inevitable. That is why oil can be great to enhance our lives, but it can also be a huge problem that will affect everyone all over the world.
Resources:
-http://find.galegroup.com/gic/docRetrieve.do?searchPageType=BasicSearchForm&inPS=true&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=edmo88552&docId=CP3208520130
-http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&source=&sortBy=&displayGroups=&action=e&catId=GALE%7CAAA000008417&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010651106
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14728856
No comments:
Post a Comment