Nonrenewable Energy. Efficacy of Oil Resources as a Future Source of Energy
Requirement:
1. Since ENV 100-11D is a writing-intensive course, an important component of the course is a five-page, double-spaced “research paper.” Students will be choose one of the forms of energy discussed in the “Nonrenewable Energy” and “Renewable Energy” chapters in a “Changing Planet” and write a research paper focused on the efficacy of using that form of energy as a future energy source.
2. Information from “A Changing Planet” may be used for background information on the student’s chosen form of energy, but students are expected to use at least four additional, scholarly resources as sources for their research paper. By scholarly resource, I mean journal articles and textbooks that have been peer reviewed (i.e., reviewed by other scholars for accuracy). Peer reviewed textbooks and journal articles typically have a list of references at their end. Articles in popular magazines (Time, Newsweek, etc.), Wikipedia, videos, newspapers, websites, etc. are not considered scholarly resources.
Efficacy of Oil Resources as a Future Source of Energy
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Efficacy of Oil Resources as a Future Source of Energy
Non-renewable energy resources refer to energy resources that cannot be regenerated once depleted since their formation takes up to billions of years. Fossil fuels are the major form of non-renewable energy in the world. For centuries, fossil fuels have powered the global economy. Coal, oil, and natural gas are the major forms of fossil fuels. They are mainly made up of hydrocarbons. Their use has been on the rise with more coal plants being commissioned and hundreds of permits for gas and oil exploration being given in different parts of the world. Fossil fuels were formed millions of years ago. During that period, the earth was covered by thick vegetation, swamps, and seas. When these plants died, their tissues which were rich in carbon dioxide were sedimented in areas with low oxygen concentration, which prevented their breakdown. Exposed to large amounts of heat and pressure over time, these tissues underwent chemical transformation, becoming coal, oil, or natural gas. These fossil fuels are found in different parts of the world today. The deposits are found deep underground and require advanced technology to explore and drill. The massive advancement in technology that has been witnessed recently has resulted in increased accessibility to previously inaccessible resources. Ocean exploration, hydraulic fracturing, as well as the extraction of oil from heavy sands has also been made possible by technology (Neff, 2016).
The use of fossil fuels has been associated with adverse environmental effects such as air pollution, waste disposal problems, and climate change. The burning of fossil fuels leads to global warming and ultimately climate change. Extraction and transportation of fossil fuels such as oil also carry the danger of oil spills, which lead to massive environmental degradation. The other disadvantage of fossil fuels, like all other nonrenewable resources, is that they are bound to get depleted. However, despite these disadvantages, fossil fuels are relatively inexpensive to extract, transport, and store. Therefore, they are the main source of energy on earth (Neff, 2016). Oil Resources
Though the scarcest of all the fossil fuels, oil is the most used especially in transportation. It is easy to extract and offers a reliable source of energy. On top of producing the most energy globally, oil is also used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products. Moreover, it has several advantages over the other fossil fuels such as the ease of transportation. Crude oil is the commodity extracted from the ground. Following extraction, it can be transported either by pipelines or tankers to refineries where it is taken through the fractional distillation process to yield various end products. Approximately half of the conventional oil reserves are found in the Middle East. Unconventional oil reserves have majorly been explored in North America (Neff, 2016).
As the use of oil increased in the past 50 years, so did the environmental impacts of its production and use. Air pollution and oil sp...
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