Oil benefits many, but brings with it pollution

Since the oil industry’s birth in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859, humans have benefited greatly from its refinement and production.

Only a person living in the most remote parts of the world today could claim he or she was untouched from the wide-ranging reach of this fossil fuel.

Unfortunately, though, with the many rewards and comforts that oil has brought, many negatives have followed.

Whether it’s spilled from tankers in the open sea or comes billowing out of factories and automobiles and into the air we breathe, oil has taken a tremendous toll on the Earth. And while many groups may debate the extent of the pollution problem, everyone agrees that one thing is clear – the world becomes more and more polluted everyday.

For example, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 6 percent of all Americans have asthma; the rate is believed to have doubled since 1980,” according to protectingourhealth.org.

Many environmental-friendly bills OK’d in the ‘90s

Environmentalists cheered the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which passed just 18 months after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spilled almost 11 million gallons of oil off the Alaskan shore.

The 1990s saw the passage of other environmental-friendly legislation, such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, during the Clinton administration.

But the pollution restrictions that these acts placed on American industry still have not done much to halt the increasing problems of global warming and the release of green house gases into the air.

Some experts split on global warming

The Union of Concerned Scientists point to melting glaciers, heat waves and ocean warming as signs the Earth is heating up. And they maintain that if temperatures continue to rise, more disease, flooding, droughts and fires could be in the Earth’s future.

Although many cite the Union of Concerned Scientists as a reputable source of information, some dispute that global warming exists at all.

John A. Baden, chairman of the Foundation of Research on Economics & the Environment, an organization with ties to Montana State University, reports several positives to global warming, such as “bigger plants” and increased “average crop yields by an estimated 33 percent.”

William Lear, director of energy and gasdynamic systems at the University of Florida, said evidence that global warming exists is overwhelming, but added that the catastophrophic outlook some prophesy may be exagerrated.

“The question with global warming is whether the risks are such that we should take action or not,” said Lear, who bikes seven miles to work each day rather than drive his car.