I am writing this post from my house in California. I am writing this post on my laptop. My room is furnished with a desk, a chair and a bed. My house is furnished with couches, TV stands, other chairs and various decorations such as bamboo, flowers, paintings and 2 televisions. I am working under a source of light that is coming from a light bulb that hangs just above my desk. All of these products depended on the use of petroleum in order to get to me. They were all shipped in some fashion using gas powered trucks or planes.
My computer was made in part due to petroleum. The electricity that is powering my computer and my light source comes from petroleum. I don’t know exactly which power plant, but it is a safe bet to say that the power source is either gas or coal. Burning coal is an extremely inefficient method of energy. The food I have just eaten for lunch came to me by the use of petroleum. I bought it at a grocery store in which I had to travel to using a gas powered car. Though my car gets about 25 miles per gallon, I still consumed gas to get to the grocery store. All the food at the grocery store arrived via truck. This truck was also powered by gas; without the use of gas powered trucks and cars I would not have anything to eat.
The clothes on my back were made in part because of petroleum. At the plant where my clothes are made, the light sources are powered by petroleum. The machines that sew the threads together are made with petroleum. The tag on my shirt indicates that it was made in Honduras. How did it get from Honduras to me? Whether it is by boat or by plane or by truck, there is definitely gas and/or petroleum being consumed in order for my shirt to get to me in the United States.
The problem with petroleum, or oil, is that it is the back bone of our society. What happens when it becomes scarcer than it is now? We deeply depend on foreign oil and as time passes our dependency increases. It is now imperative that we come up with alternative forms of energy. Solar and wind power are great sources of energy. But how do we wane ourselves off of our oil dependence? Petroleum is the basis for nearly every aspect of our society. Most of us heat our houses in the winter using gas. Gas bills continue to rise as it is harder and harder to find enough resources to fill the demand.
Many of the environmental problems the world faces today can be traced back to fossil fuel dependence (UCS). The effect of fossil fuel dependency can be vividly clear when we look at the BP oil spill that happened a couple years ago off the Gulf Coast. Millions of gallons of oil were spilled into the water. This inhibited fisher men from doing their job. Careers were in jeopardy because of the pollution that occurred. Aside from the impact on humans, many of the natural wild life were in jeopardy due to the water being contaminated with so much oil. I recall seeing pictures of birds that were covered in oil. It was made clear that humans are disrupting the natural order of things by going after oil. Not only the native wildlife was put in jeopardy, but many restaurants and tourist attractions were put in jeopardy because of the oil spill. Countless workers wondered where they would get their pay check because of the pollution that was caused.
References:
"The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels." Union of Concerned Citizens. (2002): 3-1. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/impacts/the-hidden-cost-of-fossil.html>.
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