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George Rayes
Mrs. Hove
AP/IB English 11
12/13/11
Sustainability –– The Petroleum Problem
It is purchased every single day of the year; it is used in every car; it has turned
businesses into corporate giants. It is petroleum, or, put into everyday English, gasoline. Since
the 1940s, liquefied petroleum gas has been the foremost source of fuel for motor vehicles with
internal combustion engines. However, liquefied petroleum gas is impacting our society in a
negative way, which begins a chain reaction of effects on the environment, society, and the
economy.
The first problem with petroleum is that it hurts the environment. Liquefied petroleum
gas comes from fossil fuels, which are responsible for releasing 90% of all greenhouse gases into
the planet’s atmosphere. When combusted, fossil fuels emit air pollutants, such as nitrogen
oxides, sulfur dioxide, and even heavy metals into the air, as well as sulfuric, carbonic, and nitric
acids, which causes acid rain. According to the Energy Information Administration, “3.2 billion
tons of additional carbon dioxide [is produced] annually, and The U.S. consumes more than 20
million barrels of oil per day, with more than one million tons of coal consumed annually as
well.” (GreenEnergyChoice 1). The emission of these greenhouse gases not only contributes to
global warming, it does away with fossil fuels, which are non-renewable resources.
Leading into the second problem of petroleum, it physically injures society. The burning
of fossil fuels, such as the gas combusted in motor vehicles, discharges particulates and toxic
gases that are making the air quality harmful to breathe. People breathe in particulates that are
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detrimental to the human body, causing more illnesses and putting the wellbeing of children and
senior citizens in jeopardy. A great example of this impact is China, where, “Coal burning, the
primary source of China’s high SO2 emissions, accounts for more than three quarters of the
country’s commercial energy needs, compared with 17 percent in Japan and a world average of
27 percent” (World Resources Institute 1). There is so much air contamination in China, that
people have to wear masks just to be able to walk outside.
The third problem with petroleum is that it hurts the economy. The extraction of
petroleum is a costly process, and, according to Oil-Price.Net, a typical oil rig drilling
exploratory holes costs $8,000 to $15,000 per day, and oil drilling in Arizona alone costs
between $400,000 to $1,000,000 (Flower 1). After the oil is refined into liquefied petroleum gas,
consumers must pay high prices in order to simply fill up their car. What used to only take about
$25 to fill now takes $100, which deals a huge blow to citizens who use motor vehicles. Yet, to
gas companies, a consumer’s loss is their gain. In 2007, Exxon reported that it made an annual
earning of $40.61 billion, an approximate “$1300 a second in profits” (Lozanova 1). In reality,
while each citizen of the United States and other gas-dependent countries pay hundreds of dollars
a year to fill up the tanks in their car, greedy gas companies rake in the big bucks to go on and
become even more powerful.
Fortunately, there are solutions to these problems that are already making a difference.
Recycling is a effective method that can counter this petroleum dilemma. First of all, the United
States is a primary user of plastic, which uses about 380 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wrappers
a year (Green Cotton 1). Plastic is one of the most used petroleum products, which, if recycled,
can save hundreds of barrels of oil that are to be used to make plastic. Saving oil positively
impacts the environment, society, and the economy. Recycling plastic goods helps the
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environment since it does not use non-renewable fossil fuels, allowing nature to reproduce these
resources. It also protects the landscape and structure of the environment, since oil drilling
requires either blowing up the potential oil site, digging a deep hole into the earth to reach the oil
source, or both. For society, recycling allows people more resources at their disposal, and
satisfies many situations of supply and demand. For example, many citizens use plastic bags to
carry their groceries and store items from the store to home. By recycling those plastic bags, the
bags can be re-made into containers to hold drinks, like milk. Finally, this helps the economy by
saving millions of dollars that go into running oil rigs; this also allows people to make some
money by trading in certain items, like aluminum cans, for cash. The only downside of recycling
is that it costs more to recycle than to make new products, which explains why companies keep
producing instead of recycling.
To help make a difference, I can also recycle petroleum based items that I no longer need.
This is a simple but effective approach to taking a step towards eliminating unclean production
and harm to the environment. Also, I can re-use items, such as paper and plastic bags. I can reuse plastic bags from the store for trash-bags, my lunch-bag, and to put away or carry household
items to another place. For items like milk containers, they can be washed out and used as water
jugs, or cut and filled with soil for small plants. In the future, I can buy a hybrid car in order to
save money and save the oil needed to make gasoline, and I can re-use plastic items, like PVC
pipe, in order to re-build or construct an apparatus to improve my house.
The extraction and consumption of petroleum has become a world-wide crisis that has
cost billions of dollars of funding and thousands of acres of land. The environment, society, and
the economy have been negatively affected by this source of energy, but recycling is the
proposed solution to doing away with most of the problems caused by petroleum.