i find it very annoying that as americans we consume soooooooooooo much, from food to gas, the majority are just natural glutens. it is not surprising to learn that 66% of american population are overweight and 25% are obese (cdc). moreover, our dependency on oil and its suppliers are not only hurting our wallets, it is dramatically harming our environment.
as i read current events i notices growing similar topics of increased oil prices. as we speak oil prices stand at around $66 per barrel (msnbc) and by the end of the year is expected to reach $80 dollars a barrel.
here is a research paper i did about americas petroleum addiction. i'm not claiming to be a scholarly writer but if you look pass all the grammatical errors you'll find it very interesting. note this was written july 2006. work citied available.
Petroleum Addiction
Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. I slowly wait for my gas tank to be filled. I patiently watch to see the price gradually increase, twenty dollars, thirty dollars, then forty dollars, and finally the pump stops at fifty-two dollars and thirteen cents for sixteen gallons of gas. “Damn,” I utter to myself. Gas prices are ridiculous. I start to reminisce when the price to fill up a tank was thirty dollars and wondered if prices would ever be below two dollars for regular unleaded gasoline. What the hell happened? Like president George Bush stated during his State of the Union earlier this year, “America is addicted to oil.” Americans are almost appalled and alarmed as they assemble to acknowledge an amplified addiction with our ally and adversary: oil. Global warming, politics, environmental disasters, and finite resources are the main factors that increase the never-ending price of petroleum.
The word “petroleum” is derived from the word “petra”, meaning rock, and “elaion”, meaning oil. Petroleum is commonly known as crude oil and its by-products include gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil. Petroleum is formed when prehistoric organic materials, such as animals and plants, are fossilized (EIA). The organic matter then undergoes two phases. Organic material is transformed by pressure and heat into organic kerogen and overtime catagenesis occurs, transforming the kerogen to hydrocarbons, fossil fuel (Catagenesis 1). For every barrel of crude oil we are able to extract forty-four gallons of petroleum products: twenty gallons of gasoline, seven gallons of diesel fuel, three gallons of heating oil, four gallons of jet fuel, and other products like “ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eyeglasses, records, tires, ammonia, and heart valves” (EIA, Petroleum 1).
The United States accounts for less then five percent of the world’s population (US Census Bureau), yet amazingly it accounts for almost twenty-five percent of the world’s total barrel consumption, 20,565,000 barrels of crude oil a day (EIA). The United States primary use of petroleum is in the transportation sector. Oil is also used to produce electricity, heat many homes and offices, and almost all industries are dependent on oil. According to the Department of Energy up until the 1950s the United States produced more petroleum then it consumed, ever since however we have been dependent on oil from other countries. Canada is our main single country supplier of petroleum contributing more the fifteen percent of our imports. However the members of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which include Algeria, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, when combined are in charge of importing just over forty percent of petroleum to the United States. It’s hard to believe that in the late 1990’s cost of one barrel of oil was twelve dollars and four years ago, 2002, the cost rose only six dollars to a meager eighteen dollars a barrel (DOE). The reality however is oil as of July 2006 is just above seventy-five dollars a barrel and climbing.
Global warming raises another issue regarding how oil should be produced. Gaseous atmosphere that helps shield us from the sun’s thermal radiation surrounds our Earth. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which accounts for up to twenty-five percent of the greenhouse gases, gradually depletes our atmosphere, resulting in increased temperature patterns. The main concern is the change in our climate’s environment: melting of glaciers, rising in sea levels, and increase or decrease in the population of certain animals and plants.
Many countries such as United States, Norway, Canada, and Australia are using methods to trap carbon dioxide from power plants and factories by entombing “it safely in porous rocks deep below ground” (Doyle 1). This is a great idea since it will slow down global warming. However, there are many instances where carbon dioxide leaks occurred. The worst incident occurred twenty years ago in 1986 when “1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide” (Doyle 2), almost equivalent to how much the United States emits per year (Pennel 2). It killed 1,700 people in Lake Nyos, Cameroon. Nevertheless, storages of carbon dioxide are cautiously chosen, monitored for centuries, and “posses far lesser risk than many accepted hazards” that “are already stored underground” (Doyle 3).
Many economists and scientists would point out external influence to the confounding increase of oil prices. For one, they would argue the instability of the Persian Gulf nations influence petroleum prices. Iran, according to the Energy Information Agency, is the third largest oil distributor. The possible threats to oil production coinciding with America’s disagreement with their nuclear ambitions seem frighteningly imminent. Around forty percent of petroleum shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz at the tip of Iran. If Iran maliciously decides to tactically close off the channel, traders should expect price per barrel to soar to at least twenty dollars (Assessment 7). Our involvement with the liberation of Iraqi government in March 2003 plays a part with their oil production, being down thirty percent compared to “pre-War levels” (Assessment 6). Economists would then argue that once there are peaceful resolutions in the Middle East price per barrel would decrease.
Oil being used as political power is another factor. Gazprom, Russia’s leading oil supplier, severed off oil supply to Ukraine earlier this year (Pratley 1). This is important because eighty percent of Russian oil is distributed to European countries through Ukraine and Belarus pipelines (Champion 1). Their actions caused fear to many countries in the European Union. Gazprom’s motive, however, was to force Ukraine to replace their antique public furnaces, which “guzzle more than twice as much energy as their modern replacements” (Champion 1). Russian’s motives were not of malice but emphasize excess energy consumption as punishment.
Furthermore, natural disasters can deeply cripple oil supply and raise prices exponentially. Oil production stopped dramatically in certain areas after a series of powerful hurricanes devastated the Gulf of Mexico. In some cases, “oil rigs were lifted off their anchors and moved dozens and dozens of miles” (Spear 1). Fixing these problems lasted many months and caused increased demand and price, as supply became scarce. America was not the only country plagued with natural disasters that effected petroleum productions. Countries like Russia and Kazakhstan faced extreme weather in the months of January and February, while Australia wrestled with cyclones. Once these countries oil refineries are fixed and are at total operational capacity, then the price for petroleum will drop since environmental issues are short-term factors (Assessment 7).
Petroleum is a finite resource we all can agree about. There are two categories in determining how much petroleum supply we have on Earth. The first method measures reserves: “oil is known to be producible, within a known time, with known techniques, at known costs, and known fields” (Ivanhoe 2). Reserves can be classified as active and inactive reserves. Active reserves can be produced with proven methods in less then twenty years. Inactive reserves are known to exist but are “inaccessible or producible” within the first twenty years. The other category are resources: “opinions of all undiscovered oil theoretically person in an area” (Ivanhoe 2), which is less concrete compared to inactive reserve. “The 1,311 known major and giant oil fields contain ninety-four percent of the world’s known oil” (Ivanhoe 2).
Peak-oil theory is when petroleum starts to dwindle the price of petroleum will increase; if the trends continue the economy of many nations will crumple (Peak-Oil Theory 3). Nobody really knows when we will reach our “peak.” Some theorists are very optimistic with technological advancements and believe we can prolong peak by finding new methods of gathering oil, such as “oil sands” (Peak-Oil Theory 6). In the past, methods of extracting oil from Canada’s oil sands seemed unrealistic due to cost and length needed for extraction. However Canada as of today is recognized as one of the largest active petroleum reserves of the world with a potential of two billion barrels of oil (Peak-Oil Theory 6). The recent and dramatic escalation of price per barrel has literally fueled an increase of methods used to extract oil. Proponents argue about environmental concerns, which include global warming and woodland overhauling. Suncor Energy, second largest Canadian energy company devoted to extracting oil sands, and three of Canada’s largest logging companies agreed to conserve by effectively controlling only one-sixth of Canadian forest. Canada’s legislative branch is amidst designing a carbon tax that will help reduce greenhouse gases (Kesselman 1). Their theory is by increasing taxes Canadian citizens will be less inclined to use excess amounts of energy. This intern will satisfy both ecologists and economists.
The best way for Americans to decrease it’s dependency on petroleum is to find alternatives to petroleum. As the population starts to increase, the need for a viable source of energy will also increase. Our ability to supplement transportation, heating, and electricity with other viable sources are needed so that a single source cannot be overly inflated. Global warming issues, political gains, environmental disasters are all short-term factors that will delay the peak-oil consumption and will increase petroleum prices. More important is the understanding of petroleum as a finite resource that should not be taken for granted. Petroleum will continue to power our cars, businesses, and homes, powering us psychologically and physically, till we beat our addiction.
~coldplay
