Environmental Ethics Issue on Oil Spills Essay Example
Environmental Ethics Issue on Oil Spills
Environmental Ethics Issue on Oil Spills
The environmental ethics issue that I chose to examine in this paper is the petroleum industry and its long history of oil spills which damage the ocean’s ecology, runes beaches, kills animals, and threatens the fishing and shrimping industries. Even though the United States and many other countries depend on the oil carried by ships or drilled for on off shore drilling rigs, the damage done by this industry is significant. Cleaning up an oil spill takes a massive effort, is expensive and not always effective. Alternatives to off shore oil drilling and transporting oil by ship need to be explored because of the damage it does to the environment.
What is Petroleum? Petroleum are like others may call it crude oil is a naturally occurring, toxic, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth’s surface (Wikipedia 2010).
Why do we Need Oil?
The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day and the world uses nearly 3 billion gallons each day (Office of Response and Restoration, 2008). What do we use all of this oil for? Oil is used to make fuel for cars, trucks, and busses. It is also used to make diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. We use it to heat many homes in the winter. There are many homes in the U.S. that would use it of cooking. It is used to lubricate machinery from bicycles to printing presses and to make asphalt to pave roads. Additionally, it is used to make plastic, medicine, ink, fertilizers, pesticides, paints, ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eye glasses, CDs, DVDs, and electricity. It is also used to make wax which in turned is used when packaging frozen foods, among others things that may be packaging in a wax produced.
One barrel of crude oil, when refined,
Environmental Ethics Issue on Oil Spills
The environmental ethics issue that I chose to examine in this paper is the petroleum industry and its long history of oil spills which damage the ocean’s ecology, runes beaches, kills animals, and threatens the fishing and shrimping industries. Even though the United States and many other countries depend on the oil carried by ships or drilled for on off shore drilling rigs, the damage done by this industry is significant. Cleaning up an oil spill takes a massive effort, is expensive and not always effective. Alternatives to off shore oil drilling and transporting oil by ship need to be explored because of the damage it does to the environment.
What is Petroleum? Petroleum are like others may call it crude oil is a naturally occurring, toxic, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, and other organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth’s surface (Wikipedia 2010).
Why do we Need Oil?
The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day and the world uses nearly 3 billion gallons each day (Office of Response and Restoration, 2008). What do we use all of this oil for? Oil is used to make fuel for cars, trucks, and busses. It is also used to make diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. We use it to heat many homes in the winter. There are many homes in the U.S. that would use it of cooking. It is used to lubricate machinery from bicycles to printing presses and to make asphalt to pave roads. Additionally, it is used to make plastic, medicine, ink, fertilizers, pesticides, paints, ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eye glasses, CDs, DVDs, and electricity. It is also used to make wax which in turned is used when packaging frozen foods, among others things that may be packaging in a wax produced.
One barrel of crude oil, when refined,