The Threat of Peak Oil
People always have the tendency to overuse the resources we get from the environment with the thought that it will not run out and it will stay forever or for the longest time that we could foresee. We had always believed that in so many ways, we can have the same resources all over again because it is everywhere and yet what we do not give enough attention in present is the reality that we had been using the resources above our limit and that there is a threat that we might lose it, all of it if we do not learn to value everything that the environment gives us.
In present, there had been several debates on the amount of oil that we can still have and until when will we have these reserves. The threat of losing one of the most important necessities of humans had been visible in the past years that the society has to think of resorts to save oil or to limit the use of oil. However, the entire Earth population continues to seek for a greater demand of oil and the countries which produce fuels cannot give the demand anymore.
Furthermore, this issue about the oil reserves and its existence on Earth had been a very bothering topic that some of the experts and other authorities decided not to tell about their findings and yet there had been several speculations about oil and the demand among the members of the society. Hence, there has been no final conclusion about the issue except those made by people who studied the situation and became bothered of their findings.
The most famous study about oil demand was made by Marion King Hubbert called Peak Oil. The Environment The environment contains a huge amount of resources that sustains our living. Furthermore, it provides us the things we needed starting from the food we eat up to the oils we have to use for our cars and machineries. The environment has been a great help in allowing us to have the resources we need in our daily lives. These resources help us from having a better life and continuing our existence.
It is also the environment which supplements us with the primary needs we have to use everyday and in the end, we have to be sure that it is available for us again after our use. Throughout the years, the environment has been the haven of not just humans but also all creations of God. It has been a sanctuary that makes us safe from all harm but at the same time makes us vulnerable to the changes the environment undergoes. In the past years, the environment has been encountering a lot of problems that we may consider really bothering since it actually concerns the existence of the human race.
People all over the world has a choice to make, it is either to save the world and limit the use of the primary resources or to continue spending what we currently have and forget about the future. Oil Oil is one of the most in demand natural resources of the Earth. It is used in several industries that losing it may mean a very big debate and problem for the society. Oil is also called Petroleum or crude oil. It is a bituminous liquid which is composed of different organic chemicals and can be found in large quantities below the surface of Earth.
These oils are used as fuel and at the same time are being used as a raw material in most chemical industries (Doscher, n. pag). Oil is not used in mobility but also in manufacturing medicines, fertilizers, foodstuffs paints, cloth, plastics, building materials and even to generate electricity. Therefore, oil is very important in the lives of humans for it offers a variety of functions which can be used in several industries. In present, most countries if not all of the countries in the world depends on Petroleum, oil and products made through this material (Doscher, n.
pag). Petroleum or oil is formed under the surface of the Earth through the decomposition of marine organisms. The tiny organisms left are trapped with fine sands and silts which rest in the bottom of the sea. This process started for a long time already, million years and continues up to the present (Doscher, n. pag). However, it takes time to develop and that is the present problem of the oil industry right now. Oil Origin, Oil Problem and Oil Demand The problem regarding the existence of Oil is very easy to determine since it is predictable.
According to Deffeyes in his book “Hubbert’s Peak”, he mentioned in the origins of oil that it started in 1970s when major United States oil companies performed oil-drilling in the coasts of Oregon and Washington after paying the government with millions of dollars and they failed to discover oil in these lands after paying a huge amount (page 14). There are several reasons why this one happened and we can consider that they spent too much when all they did was to drill three holes and when they found nothing, they simply abandoned the project.
It is also funny to think that maybe if they drilled more, they could have found a large amount of oil but then, maybe at some points, the environmentalists in these places are more organized than in any place around the world that resulted to abandoning the project (Deffeyes, page 14). In 2003, the whole world has been characterized in to having a huge demand of oil which continued in 2004 and 2005. As a result of the growing demand, the consumer’s budget had been very tight while the manufacturers had a huge profit.
Economies started to decline because of huge amount of Oil and they had to depend on several imported oil (Pirog, page 4). In present, there has been a continuous growth in the demand for oil and petroleum. Oil Peak What is oil peak? Not all people are aware of it and it is not a topic that we can simply bring in a group because it is really sensitive. This issue concerns the greater population and someone with no knowledge about the situation might have problems in explaining what the real issue is and what it really means to the society.
Furthermore, explaining oil peak might not be accepted by other who has no idea about the oil reserves and resources. Unlike other resources coming form nature, Oil is finite. There is a limited amount of this resource and we finally reached our limit. As the demand for oil continues to grow, the oil itself decreases and in few more years, we might experience what we now call as Oil Peak (Passero, n. pag). Oil Peak is first coined by a geophysicist named Marion King Hubbert who released a paper in 1956 presented to the American Petroleum Institute.
In this paper, Hubbert proposed a model of the production and depletion of oil which actually looks like a bell curve wherein this model states the oil production against time. He enumerated in this paper using the model the time and oil reserves and with the use of this, he found out and concluded that in some unspecified point, the curve will reach its peak and that would mean of lesser oil reserves in the coming years. When the peak is reached, it is the time when half of the oil under the ground had been drilled already and the rest will not be enough to sustain the demand of humanity (Passero, n.
pag). Based in the figures he presented and his calculations, in the United States of America, Peak Oil will be between 1965 to 1970 and it will be in 1995 in the World scene. However, because there are other oil wells being discovered, this predicted year was moved and moved. The years was adjusted and claimed to be present in 2004 wherein there will be 30 billion barrels used and had been pumped for the world demand. It is also the year that experts predicted when the amount drilled is equal to the remaining amount of oil under the ground.
In present, the peak oil year is adjusted again in 2010, probably coming until 2013 as the average year (Passero, n. pag). Sustaining the Economy and the Society People always believed that there had been enough resources which we can use in present not minding the resources that will be used by the next generation or in future. While the economy is doing good, the resources and the products it needs decreases. The question we have right now is the ability of the environment to sustain the needs of our growing population which calls for growing demands.
Depletion of the natural resources has been the main problem and the people belong in the business world kept on pushing the resources to the limit that they had been overusing the resources already and living nothing if not a small amount to the next generation. Although we know that most natural resource or the resources given by Earth or the environment is infinite, we can conclude that the environment already turned its back on us and gave us limited resources after we abundantly used almost all resources with no second thought on the amount we should consume in the first place. What can we do now that we are near the peak?
A very good question which needs a very good answer. The whole world is on a hot debate in present concerning oil and its ability to continue to provide us until forever. However there had been several findings already that claim that there is a need to limit our use of these resources before we ran out of it. Like all resources given by the environment, there is a tendency for scarcity and what we had not been thinking that the resource is actually infinite. If ever there will still be oil resource available, it will not be as good as what we had back then and the price would be higher than the usual.
There will be changes and if we would want to have the same oil we had before, well, we have to wait for million years until it is finally formed under the Earth’s surface. What we can do in present is to limit the use of oils and fuel so as to somehow delay if not limit the nearing of the peak and lengthen the formation of oil under the earth’s surface. Works Cited Deffeyes, Kenneth S. “Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage”. Princeton University Press. Doscher, Todd M. “Petroleum,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008.
Retrieved 1 December 2008 from http://encarta. msn. com Passero, Barbara. “Preface to ‘Are Alternative Energy Sources Necessary? ‘. ” Opposing Viewpoints: Energy Alternatives. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Canada Community College. 30 Nov. 2008 <http://find. galegroup. com/ips/start. do? prodId=IPS> Pirog, Robert. 2005 June 9. “World Oil Demand and its effect on Oil Prices”. Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 December 2008 from http://www. fas. org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32530. pdf
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