IB3 Joana Sipe

“The WhOile Truth” or “A Crude-Oily Run Society”

            Oil has many predisposed stereotypes and roles in society; it is penned as black gold or the root of all environment degradation, is simply known as gasoline, and is also the fuel to run the world’s ongoing machine.  Everything in the world’s cultural and intellectual world is a cycle. The oil cycle is one of the most prominent and influential of them, yet it is not taught to the public, instead oil acts as an underlying subject that most of the public is not educated well enough upon to fathom how great of an impact it implements on their lives. Oil not only “cycles” as a nonrenewable resource, but cycles the entire economy and nearly every function people take for granted. The cycling debate of oil running lives is relevant since it has become a growing menace that is predicted to become more controversial, has current stakeholders in multiple aspects of life, including the elusive general public, and creates relevant issues since it affects every aspect of each person’s life, especially the one whom has no voice: Earth.

            All sources of energy primarily from the sun, the same is of oil. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons in the form of coal (soild), oil (liquid), and natural gas (methane) that are created by the compression and anaerobic decay of microscopic Jurassic-age plant, algae, and animal remains in the crust of the earth.  Environmentalists and scientists state that fossil fuels exist in a finite amount and are a nonrenewable resource since the amount of oil that is being  drilled and utilized today has been stored and since before humans were present on the Earth and takes millions of years to correctly be “pressure cooked” to the form of oil used.  However, though it is a finite resource that must be conserved many businessmen and politicians state that since it is stored underground and does renew, even though it is at a ridiculously slow-rate, that oil will never run out.  This is true if oil was used in moderation, which is not the case since dependence of oil is increasing at an exponential rate.

            Oil is the root of all of the issues that are exponentially deteriorating the earth such as the loss of rainforests, many impacts of global warming, air pollution, water pollution, soil degradation and numerous more.  Last spring, 388 ppm of carbon dioxide (the most polluting by-product of the burning of fossil fuels) was in the environment, as of today there are 392 ppm CO2.  In less than six months the amount of carbon dioxide released in the environment grew by 4ppm when the accepted amount that is tolerable for the earth is 350 ppm.  According to Hubbert’s peak, coined by M. King Hubbert the geophysicist of Shell Oil in 1956, Oil well extraction would reach a peak in 1970 and drop from that point.  However, that is not the case sadly, it is increasing at an exponential rate that the earth is not able to tolerate anymore and is bound to show an critical occurrence in the next 30-70 years.