So what is the problem with using oil? it works, right?

Question

So what is the problem with using oil? it works, right?

Answer 1

Putting all environmental aspects aside, because that causes great debate around here, it's going to run out eventually (the easily accessible and cheap stuff, at least; there will always be a little somewhere).

Simple as that, and no one is going to deny it. When? We don't know, but likely not centuries off.

And we may not be ready to continue our lives with alternatives, if we don't start researching and developing them now.

Answer 2

It will eventually run out. It also produces a lot of CO2 which is a known greenhouse gas, which can cause global warming and destroy vital ecosystems. I just don't my kids or grand kids to be stuck in a situation with no viable means for energy to survive. As people above have said, the oil we use today has been developed over a hundred years to be the most effective source for energy, so why can't that be the same for something else. There must be other alternative energies that are just as effective as oil, they just need to money to help them develop. I would rather start that research no while we still have oil then try to start it once we run out.

Answer 3

yeah it  works BUT it causes pollution and it is not renewable. this is why alternatives have to be found. Just immagine that there is no more oil and ways of using the alternative sources of energy had not yet been found. What would happen then?

Answer 4

I don't think that oil has something to do on our environment.  

Answer 5

Oil is pretty hard on the environment.  Oil spills can kill thousands, if not millions of animals and spread to huge regions.  It can destroy whole ecosystems and wipe them virtually clean of life for years.  Look up the Exxon oil spill if you want a good example.

Another problem is burning oil for fuel releases carbon dioxide, the cause of global warming.  We've been using oil at an ever increasing rate, so we've been releasing carbon dioxide exponentially, and it's starting to show in the south pole.  

Even if you exclude the environment, the big problem with oil is that it's finite.  Some day it is going to run out and then there will be no more oil.  Ever.  It takes something like 200 million years to make oil.  We are using it up so fast that its possible the oil will run out in our lifetimes, and then we'll have to wait millions of years to get any more.  That's one of the reasons alternative fuel sources are so important.  We know someday there will be no oil, and the lights will all go out.  We need to find something else while there is still oil to use, otherwise someday we will be stuck with no transportation, no electricity, just like the dark ages.

Answer 6

I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH OIL

Answer 7

exactly it works youll be dead by the time of the dramatic effects so forget everyone in the future and live it up

Answer 8

You are right, it works and if we had never found it we would not have the things we do. We have a h**l of lot to thank for oil. The real problem is that we need to dig deeper to keep up with the demand and that's where the higher price comes into it. But having said that the profits oil companies are making is obscene.

Forget all this rubbish about it being a fossil fuel and that it's use is going to damage the environment and that it's going to run out. If a lie is told often and long enough it's assumed to be fact. Such is the case with oil and I wish people would get their heads out of the sand and do some real research. Oil was assumed to be a fossil fuel by a Russian scholar back in 1757 and since then has been proven not to be.

Do the research and don't listen to the ones who make the loudest noise with the least amount of brains.

Answer 9

it will run out...

n if oil spills from ship n d penguins swim there,

boom! they willl die!

Answer 10

1) Oil has nothing to do with the ozone, that was supposedly CFCs - but CFCs were banned 20 years ago and the ozone hole is no smaller.

2) Oil also has nothing to do with the grid.   Oil is a transportation fuel, and is used only minimally as a backup generating fuel.

3) You're 100% correct.    It works, for both transportation and plastics, as well as asphalt and other uses.    Its efficiency is unmatched for those uses.   Oil-based products last 1000 years in a landfill - but oil will last much longer, so the biodegradability argument is a non-sequitur.

Answer 11

if you enjoy technology and civilization as we know it , thank oil !

Answer 12

Oil is not the problem. Its the fact that we dont do enough to reprocess the by products. With more investment in to research we could probably find much more efficient ways of using the stuff with out doing anywhere near as much damage to the environment and probably eventually find a way to make oil a completely no polluting fuel.

But that will cut into many large corporations profits. And we all know that they would rather make money than make sure the earth is a safe place for our and their children.

Its a typical case of SAVE NOW, PAY LATER. The problem is that the cost will be extremely high. The lives of our children and most life on earth (as we know it)

Answer 13

Not a problem at all. Oil has developed over the past 100 years into the most efficient way to power our cars/mowers/etc. The internal combustion engine is durable and convenient.

The problem is the leftist who dislike capitalism and America are trying to shut down the economy/consumption. The first place to start is the energy sector. AGW provides a convenient means to an ends. They can claim world disaster and call for the shutting down of oil. Of course, their solution, alternative energy, is so inefficient, that it can not come close to providing the necessary energy. This means that all people must accept a more modest life style in order to accomedate their  leftist agenda.