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It is Inevitable the fact that 011 Is an essential part of word’s economy, power and development. As time passes we have become more dependent on such resource. It is a main fuel that runs almost every machine from transportations to the manufacturing of products. However, oil exploitation has damaged our environment significantly. Over the past 100 years, oil has been exploited In offshore oil-rigs. This has led to the damage of marine species, especially in the case of oil spilling. An oil spill is the release of petroleum into the ocean because of the deficient knowledge of he operation drilling rigs, transportation, and OLL pumping.
Every year, millions of gallons 011 has been spilled into the ocean. For example the Use’s biggest oil spill took place on April 20, 2010, as a consequence there was an estimated 200,000 gallons spilled of oil per day due to explosion and sinking of the Deep-water Horizon oil rig. Crude oil contains many difference kinds of substances which are extremely noxious to marine animals and ecosystem. When birds’ feather or mammals’ fur are absorbed by oil, they can be more vulnerable and intoxicated easily. Oil also impairs the fishes’ boning and survival ability when the water environment is changed.
According studies at least one percent oil-absorbed birds and marine mammals survive such Incident even If lad Is provided to treat the problem. Furthermore OLL spill affects to the natural linkage as well as food chain. This means it affects not only marine species but also other habitats – such as coral reefs – and further. The higher and organisms is on the food chain, the diseases or health harms can be spread out even to human. Contamination of soil caused by OLL spill Is an alarming problem that Is uncovering as well. These hydrocarbons In 011 adversely Influence on the sprout and growth of plants in soils.
According to the united Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, when soil is contaminated by oil, the amount of oxygen in soil is reduced leading to Impeding native plant growth. Therefore, contamination of soil can do significant damage to not only the nutrient absorption and growth of plants. But also the crop yields and harvests. The mainly chemical components of oil are Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon; these elements have variety molecular forms and f those chemical components for specific using, crude oil contains some impurities such as nitrogen, sulfur and other metals.
Therefore, when we burn petroleum, it can produce emission and byproducts, which cause environmental problem and harm our health, such as Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. In details, Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain, which causes to increase acidity levels in lakes and rivers and seas leading to killing aquatic life. Moreover, Carbon dioxide is a primary reason causing global warming which affects the habitat of unmans and other species.
There are several fundamental in US policies over oil reserves. In 2003, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil averaged about $31 per barrel. 10 years later, today, the price has risen to over $90 per barrel. As long as energy prices remain high, the United States government can hardly be absolved from the blame. In early stage of the past 10 years, the US energy policy trended conservative. From the Iraq war to the new Africa Command, Anta’s and US military existence in Middle East and North Africa has continued to grow.
In order to protect energy security, the US government tends to ensure the international energy supply by providing military assistance to critical oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia. However, sometimes, the external cost for military attempts to protect energy security is more expensive than energy prices. For instance, in order to secure energy supply of the Middle East, the huge military and economic aid that United States spends made average cost of crude oil rise to about three times of the crude oil market price.
Furthermore, the conservative energy policy which focuses on the external supply sakes Oil price even more unstable. Because of recent expansion in developing countries and rising of Russian energy power, global energy market became more complex and highly variable. In such complex era, the US conservative energy which based on military presence can hardly guarantee the international energy supply remains absolutely stable. Moreover, such the uncertainty of energy supply created more speculating on world oil markets, and this is the mainly causes of high prices of energy market.
The plan to resolve energy problems in the United States has been proposed for nearly half of a century. In 1973, US had faced to the turbulent Middle East situation, President Richard Nixon pointed out that the United States will confront energy crisis. He asked to reduce the dependence of United State on foreign oil, and through energy conservation and new technology development, finally US achieved energy independence. In fact, seeking energy independent can be seen as an opportunity rather than a problematic. In the past decade, the United States has experienced in technology revolution.
The revolution is not only about renewable energy, but also about the exploitation of oil and gas. In 2011, the United States once again became a net exporter of petroleum products since 1949. After ten years, the United States could overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia becomes the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. The flourish of new sources of energy, such as shale gas and shale oil, has the impact that far beyond people’s imagination. By seeking energy independence in the United States, not only is the energy security problem solved, a brand-new era in economy will be opened.
Finally, there is the problem with the high price of oil. The expensive of oil price can be explained in financial aspect. From the information provided by the OPEC, the member of OPEC countries added a total of is actually having a sufficient oil supply. The supply of oil is stable and do not support to the increasing of oil price. However, the oil price is still high and keeps rising nowadays. This situation conveys that the law of supply and demand cannot explain the high price of oil. Speculation of oil is mainly reasons behind that keeping the oil price in irrational high level.
Speculation is when people buying crude oil that is not for current consumption, but for future use. Speculators earn a great profit by archiving futures. In the future, there are two parties will contact to buy or sell a commodity at a predetermined future date and price. They usually bet on the price of a commodity that will reach in the future. In this case, the commodity is oil. They are not investing the actual, physical oil but gambling the oil price whether it will increase or decrease. Such behavior harms the oil market’s normal function, bringing impact to the oil price.
While speculator purchase a large amount of oil futures with a price that highly greater than the normal price, producer will trends to reserve the oil cause they notice that the oil can be sold in a rather good price in the future which can bring more profit. Thus, as the supply in the oil market decrease due to the reservation of oil buys the producers, oil price is inflated in an irrational way. In conclusion, the conflicts with oil exploitations continue to increase. Unfortunately, whether changes are made to preserve nature the environment will never go back to its initial stage.