TASK 1, The Age of Stupid - Oil Industry

Issues:

Toxicity:

• The Crude oil is a mixture of many different kinds of organic compounds, many of which are highly toxic and cancer causing (carcinogenic). 
• Oil is "acutely lethal" to fish, that is it kills fish quickly, at a concentration of 4000 parts per million (ppm)(0.4%). 
• Crude oil and petroleum distillates cause birth defects.
• Benzene is present in both crude oil and gasoline and is known to cause leukemia in humans. 
• The compound is also known to lower the white blood cell count in humans, which would leave people exposed to it more susceptible to infections.

Exhaust:

• When oil or petroleum distillates are burned, usually the combustion is not complete. This means that incompletely burned compounds are created in addition to just water and carbon dioxide. The other compounds are often toxic to life.
• Also, fine particulates of soot blacken humans' and other animals' lungs and cause heart problems or death. Soot is cancer causing.

Acid Rain:

• High temperatures created by the combustion of petroleum cause nitrogen gas in the surrounding air to oxidize, creating nitrous oxides. Nitrous oxides, along with sulfur dioxide from the sulfur in the oil, combine with water in the atmosphere to create acid rain.
• Acid rain causes many problems such as dead trees and acidified lakes with dead fish. Coral reefs in the world's oceans are killed by acidic water caused by acid rain.
• Acid rain leads to increased corrosion of machinery and structures (large amounts of capital), and to the slow destruction of archaeological structures like the marble ruins in Rome and Greece.

Climate Change:

• Humans burning large amounts of petroleum create large amounts of CO₂ gas that traps heat in the earth's atmosphere. Also some organic compounds, such as methane released from petroleum drilling or from the petroleum itself, trap heat several times more efficiently than CO₂. 
• Soot blocks the sun from reaching the earth and could cause cooling of the earth's atmosphere.

Oil Spills:

• Major oil spills include the Kuwaiti oil fires, Kuwaiti oil lakes, Lakeview Gusher, Gulf War oil spill, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Spilt oil penetrates into the structure of the plumage of birds and the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability, and making them more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water. Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and beaches involved. Spills may take weeks, months or even years to clean up

VOS's: 

• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are gases or vapours emitted by various solids and liquids, many of which have short- and long-term adverse effects on human health and the environment. VOCs from petroleum are toxic and foul the air, and some like benzene are extremely toxic, carcinogenic and cause DNA damage.
  
  
  

  Sweden plans to be world's first oil-free economy

  
  • 15-year limit set for switch to renewable energy
  • Biofuels favoured over further nuclear power
  • Doing so to avoid climate change and huge oil prices.
  • Dependency on oil should be broken by 2020.
    
    
  "Sweden, which was badly hit by the oil price rises in the 1970s, now gets almost all its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, and relies on fossil fuels mainly for transport. Almost all its heating has been converted in the past decade to schemes which distribute steam or hot water generated by geothermal energy or waste heat. A 1980 referendum decided that nuclear power should be phased out, but this has still not been finalised."
  
  (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/feb/08/frontpagenews.oilandpetrol)