Problems caused by oil use

Oil Dependency & Solutions

Problems Caused by Using Oil and the Increasingly Serious Consequences of Western Oil Dependency

Decades before the dawn of the 21st century (to be exact, on October 17, 1973 (see "1973 Oil Crisis")) America and the Western world in general began to first grow keenly aware that in the future America in particular, as the world's leading oil consumer, ought to begin, decisively; steadily, and aggressively, to little by little reduce its own dependency on (in particular) Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC, i.e., Arab members of OPEC, in addition to the nations of Egypt and Syria (see "1973 Oil Crisis")) OPEC-controlled oil imported from the Middle East.

As that particularly painful Western-world crisis subsided, however, so did sufficient political will (American especially); determination, and courage to continue on, doggedly, and with a truly viable and sustained level of governmental funding and support for research; development, and innovative and creative ideas. Had that not ceased (and had America's political not been much and seriously diluted (as it still is, even now) by extensive and powerful oil-lobbying interests willing and able to "buy" politicians and political support, the United States might even, by now, have managed or at least to be substantially closer to actually freeing itself from still being "addicted to oil," as even George W. Bush finally admitted in his January 2006 State of the Union address. (See Bush, State of the Union speech, January 31, 2006).

Genesis, Continuation and Increasing of Problem

Today, however 33 years and counting since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo that truly semi-paralyzed American cars and drivers and forced people to wait in three-plus hour lines to fill up, not much has truly changed since the latter months of 1973 (Rupert and Rapkin). Moreover:

At the height of the crisis in the United States, drivers of vehicles with odd numbered license plates were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd- numbered days of the month, while drivers with even-numbers were limited to even-numbered days. ("1973 Oil Crisis")

Attempted Solutions

Still, to be fair, some actions have been taken for controlling the vast and still-growing amount of oil America in particular (still easily the world leader in this inglorious respect) continues, increasingly, to use: for running automobiles in particular. For example, Toyota, Honda, and a few other automobile manufacturers worldwide, including (more recently [and most unfortunately so] some American ones (e.g., General Motors; and to a lesser extent, Ford), have already designed, manufactured, and sold and/or are in the process of researching ways of designing, manufacturing, and selling, additional "hybrid" cars (the Toyota Prius is perhaps the best, and definitely the most popular example of a hybrid car in America) that require much less gas while at the same time being substantially more fuel-efficient to drive (see "Hybrid Vehicle"). What all of this evidence combined, plus ever-increasing evidence of the ingrown stubbornness and knotty complexity of the problem, points to is that no one solution has ever existed, or will. Solutions to the problem could still possibly work to solve it, in combination. But first must come true and sustained political will. In order to achieve and sustain that kind of real (meaning not for purposes of re-election) political will, many current; longtime; hugely hegemonic, in the worst cases, enclaves of imbedded power and influence (that act according to their own best interests, but slowly ruin not just a decent way of life, but the planet itself, for almost everyone else) must be completely uprooted and dislodged from their quasi-monarchical seats of power - not just for a political season or two, but indeed forever.

Evidence for the Problems of High Oil Price

Statistics show that increased oil usage worldwide, and the continued (corresponding; inevitable) escalation in oil prices, shows no sign of slowing down. For example, according to the article "Oil price increases of 2004-2006":

The price of standard crude oil on NYMEX was under $25/barrel in September 2003. By August 11, 2005, the price had been above $60/barrel for over a week and a half. A record price of $78.40 per barrel was reached on July 13, 2006, due in part to North Korea's missile launches, Middle-

East Crisis, Iranian nuclear brinkmanship and reports from the U.S. department of energy showing a decline in petroleum reserves. While oil prices are considerably higher than a year ago, they are still roughly $14 from exceeding the inflation-adjusted peak of the 1980 shock, when prices were over $90 a barrel in today's prices.

The rise in prices from 2004-2006 is illustrated within the graph below:

Source: "Oil price increases of 2004-2006," Answers.com, 2006

Causes

Causes of the current problem of oil dependency worldwide are varied ("2005 Oil Shock"), but have mostly to do with sharply increased demand for oil in general, not just in the West, but in other areas of the world as well, particularly on the part of fast-industrializing nations of today like India, China, and others (see Bush; "2005 Oil Shock"; Syriana; "Oil price increases of 2004-2006"). In the past, for example, such nations had much less need for oil due to fewer personal cars and less manufacturing; producing, and other results of industrialization in general.

Today, however, such nations (and many others, for the same reasons) are in the process of catching up with the United States in terms of demand for oil. The oil supply worldwide, though, has not increased, thus driving oil prices up worldwide, just as the well-known economic theory of supply and demand (correctly) holds ("Oil price increases of 2004-2006").

Effects

In terms of overall deleterious effects of the West's sustained, and other areas' sharply increased, more recent, and now also widespread dependency on oil, the most serious of these, and the one that most threatens the future health and atmosphere, if not the very sustainability of life on our planet, is global warming (An Inconvenient Truth), the effect of so much continued and ever-increasing burning of fossil fuels, which then creates the "greenhouse effect' that heats up the earth's atmosphere, as it has now.

Human overuse of oil, in the United States in particular over the most time, has led to the earth's atmosphere's heating up, and dangerously so (An Inconvenient Truth). Some destructive effects of global warming, in fact, have already been empirically observed. For example, the earth's ice supply, most observably in the Arctic region (An Inconvenient Truth) has begun to melt at alarming (and increasing) rates. For example, Ernest Hemingway's famous snows of Kilimanjaro, about which he wrote some 60 years ago in a short story-based partly on the events of a real-life African safari he took are snows no more (An Inconvenient Truth). The very lives of Arctic species of animals, e.g., the polar bear, are being threatened by global warming (An Inconvenient Truth).

The world's rainforests have been affected by global warming and the resulting "Greenhouse Effect" (An Inconvenient Truth) combined with industrial and developmental encroachment upon them by humans, thereby creating the conditions of possibility for the greenhouse effect and much damage, a great deal of it permanent, to the habitats and survivability of rainforest-dwelling animal species, especially in Brazil.

Moreover, Western fears of a possible undersupply of its always much needed Middle Eastern oil were what more likely than not truly led to America's decision to wage the first Gulf War (popularly called "Desert Storm") in order to drive Iraq out of oil-rich Kuwait when it had jus been invaded, on August 2, 1990 ("Gulf War"). More recently, and increasingly, ever since its start, the current Iraq war has come to be seen by many Americans as yet another not-so-veiled effort toward continuing, by force if necessary, availability of sufficient oil supply for America in particular (and heady profits as well, by oil companies and oil interests, e.g., Halliburton).

Solution(s)[?]

Solutions to the ongoing and continually-increasing problem of oil dependency could still be reached; if the political will and commitment were to truly exist (and in the opinion of this author, it currently does not). No real solution is viable without that. Oil lobbies would need to lose their grip on Washington politicians, which would even conceivably happen only if a groundswell of citizenry were to threaten to "un-elect" the career politicians supported, politically and sometimes, at least to an extent, personally (trips; favors) by various big oil interests.

Moreover, average citizens themselves would need to sacrifice certain luxuries that many now consider, having long been used to them, necessities. Gas-guzzling trucks and SUV's would need to go first [see also footnote 4, below). Also, Congress could finally start (although it most likely will not, since it has already had several opportunities to do this and did not, bought off as usual by oil interests and car companies) to categorize SUVS, by law, as cars, not trucks, holding them, then, to the same mileage and emissions standards cars have now.