Environmental Impacts

When thinking of the costs of oil, we should pay attention to the obvious here. What is the affect of burning oil and gasoline on the environment, also the effect that burning fossil fuels has on human health. We have to pay attention the environmental degradation leading to phenomena’s such as global warming.

                Many of the environmental problems the world faces today can be traced back to fossil fuel dependence (UCS). Carbon dioxide is the primary culprit of the environmental degradation today. Humans are now breathing in more carbon dioxide through the air than ever before in the history of the world. This can lead to many health problems including cancer and emphysema.

                Since records have been kept in the 1800’s, the average temperature of the atmosphere has risen 0.5-1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (UCS). This really shows that human behavior, mainly our dependence on fossil fuels, is leading to environmental degradation and a warmer climate. This can lead to a series of effects on the climate. The main one being that warmer climate will cause the oceans to rise due to the melting of the earth’s glaciers. Altered climate change may result in more extreme weather events and even an increase in the frequency of droughts in inland agricultural zones (UCS). This would cause the price of fruits and vegetables to rise quite rapidly. For people whose work depends on the weather, such as farmers, this could lead to loss of everything they hold dear. More extreme weather conditions would have an impact on everybody. Let’s face it; our behavior does have an effect on the weather conditions throughout the world.

                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. 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. Is this the legacy we want to leave behind? Destroy the environment and ask no questions about the impact we have? I don't know about you but I want to leave this earth in better shape than I found it. How can we continue to pollute our natural environments and sustain our life styles? The short answer is that we can't, sooner or later our behavior will catch up to us.

References

"The Hidden Cost of Fossil Fuels." Union of Concerned Citizens. (2002): 3-1. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/impacts/the-hidden-cost-of-fossil.html.
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/impacts/the-hidden-cost-of-fossil.html