Students: Emilee Lockridge, Cassey Garza, Michael Huddleston, Josh Azores, Aryel Kelley
Oil has been a growing concern around the world, considering it is one of the major sources for our energy. Everyone in the United States relies on oil in some way or another and typically the average American only thinks about oil in terms of how much is it to fill up their vehicle’s tank. Gas prices have been increasing every year and our consumption of this resource has been steadily increasing as well. The major question we have to ask is how much oil can we extract and when will it run out? Oil is not an unlimited resource and converting oil to energy creates emissions that pollute the environment. Some researchers believe that the increasing amount of oil usage and emission production has been the leading cause of climate change, arguing that the amount of Co^2 produced from oil usage is an extreme risk to our planet’s health.
Originally the main way to extract oil was from ground drilling but now there are new techniques that allow us to extract oil from tar sands where oil exists in locations that were previously to expensive and difficult to extract from. Each barrel of oil extracted produces 200 pounds of sand and an excessive amount of water contaminated with bitumen and cancer causing substances which is released into the environment allowing the water to travel and contaminate the surroundings. This expensive and time consuming method has been very controversial.
Finding a cleaner alternative energy source to replace oil should be the next step in this energy crisis. As well as educating people on alternative energy and the truths about how we are currently extracting oil from various locations. Those are the items to be discussed in our proposal.
Schreiner Achievement Showcase 2013 