by Asia Williams
I believe that it is obvious that our abuse
of the environment and its natural resources is a definite priority on the list
of problems we face in 2013. From little things like forgetting to unplug your
hair dryer after use (it doesn’t matter if it is turned off; if it’s still
plugged in you are in fact still wasting electricity) to discarding and
littering a bottle of water, 3 feet on the ground from a convenient recycling
bin, we have become oblivious and unaware the of how important the environment
is to us and therefore how many precautions we need to take in order to keep
the privilege of using it.
One of the ways we naturally maltreat
the environment is our unhealthy dependency on oil. We are literally the “oil
economy” and go through critical lengths to secure our status as our economy
doesn’t know how to properly function in its absence. Oil is literally one of
the most important factors that ensures our economic health but because we are
so used to having it around (and tons of it) we tend to go through supplies
carelessly thinking that we can never run out. In reality we are low in oil and
are so desperate for it that we put ourselves in position where we’re not only
going to run out sooner or later but we feel that it is ok to start randomly
drilling where we are not permitted or where it’s not safe.
New oil is harder to find, takes longer
to develop and requires a lot more capital. Companies like Shell Oil on the
other hand continue to push their limits and drill for oil in places like the
Artic which has already lost 75% of its ice by volume since the National Snow
and Ice Data Center started recording this info back in 1979. Reduced Arctic
sea connects to a warmer planet and thus a change in climate patterns and
people tend to push aside such thoughts, ignoring them because we evidently we
don’t see how much this effects not only us but our entire world. We are at
risks because people don’t see the long term effects of the over use of oil
because in many ways it will be a while till it has an impact on us
individually and because of that gap of time we think it’s ok and just not that
serious enough that we can’t just wait till another time to deal with it. But
we can’t keep pushing this issue back.
When is enough going to be enough? I know I can’t just simply ask people
to throw their beliefs, routines and ways of daily living out the window but we
need to start somewhere and make some kind of commitment to actually
acknowledging that we things are getting worse. We
may become the largest oil producer in 2013, the Arctic sea ice reached its lowest level in recorded history and Shell
plans to give drilling another go this year.
