Why do so many people view oil as being unimportant?

Question

So many people like to use bumper-sticker terms like "Lives for oil" and think that's enough to justify an argument.

Like it or not, at our point in history oil is the lifeblood of not only our country, but the world. Without it we would not be "third-world", but "primitive world." It keeps us alive; it is a factor in our very existence. It might seem easy to say you can't trade a life for a barrel of oil, but without that oil, many more people would not only die, but our country would collapse.

Answer 1

Because some people are naive.

Answer 2

I don't think so. I think that is what they would like you to believe but it isn't true. Some places already have alternative fuels like Brazil. We have oil wells in Oklahoma where they won't pump it out because it cost more to pump it than buying foreign oil. When that stops they will start up the pumps.
Also Alaska has oil, that would start up the drilling there and rush up the alternative fuels, thing.
You give Americans a problem and they will find a solution.
Already in California houses are being build with solar packs on the roof for power for the houses.
More would be build and put on roofs.
The Eufaula Dam has a power plant beside it and it is going in full force and provideing power to lots of cities. Totally seperate from other sources.
They are building huge factories that turn switch grass into alternative fuel. So what is actually going to happen because of all the problems with the middle east people are going to get scared and make other sources and eventually the only major income for these countries is going to dry up.
they will no longer be these rich oil countries. If they had to depend on their dates and raisins for income they are the ones who would have their country collapse.
Americans are not going to just sit on their hands and let some oil barrons collapse this country.
Get the Bushes out of the white house who own all the oil wells and would like us to believe it is vital and get someone who is into alternative fuels and we will do fine.
we just need different leaders.

Answer 3

Lewis Lapham, former editor of Harper's Magazine, said that he attended a briefing at the Virgina Military Institute (VMI) where a colonel basically said (pointing to a map of central Asia) that all these countries Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan (drawing a big circle around the area)... for our purposes, we can just refer to this as Pipeline-astan.

Sort of funny, but sad.

It has been estimated that the US military spends $100 billion protecting the shipping lanes for oil. There are hundreds of billions of dollars spent on military bases to protect the oil wells all over the world (that is the point of the colonel at VMI). Those are costs that we do not see reflected at the pump (and if we did, we would have been demanding much more fuel efficient vehicles and alternative energy sources a long time ago.)

In recent congressional hearings (I watched some of them on CSPAN), current and former military leaders admit that our dependence on foreign sources of oil is a threat to our security.

There are no alternative energy sources that can significantly replace the functions of oil in our economy for years to come.

So, oil is obviously very important.

But, we have made no serious attempt to replace oil, either.

There have been no new oil refineries in the US in the last 31 years.

Jimmy Carter tried to encourage solar power and even put solar panels on the roof of the White House. Ronald Reagan had them taken down.

In 1979, under Carter, congress implemented fuel efficiency standards that increased overall gas mileage from 18 to 27.5 mpg and our use of Mid-East oil fell 87% by 1985. You could have projected zero Mid-East oil by 1986 by extrapolating forward.

However, under the Reagan administration in 1985 those standards were eliminated and this country returned to its gas guzzling ways with trucks, hummers and huge SUVs clogging our highways (rush hour is an oxymoron) often carrying 1 person per vehicle. And we are more dependent than ever.

Under the Bush administration, oil companies have been allowed to drill and profit from public lands and not pay lease fees adding up to billions of dollars (would have been $18 billion just this year - saw that on CSPAN also) over the last 6 years (with a Republican congress). That has ended with the new Democratic majority, and the funds are going to be used for alternative fuel development.

Imagine how much farther along we would be now, if we had been using that money for alternative fuels over the last 6 years.

You should search all news sources and not just listen to the large corporate media talking points.

You'll eventually figure out what's really Politically Correct.

Answer 4

I think people do understand that oil is important. Maybe the most important natural resource in today's world. Anyone who thinks that it is not at the root of the war on terrorism is a fool. The industrialized nations of the world need oil, and will go about many methods for getting it and using it to their advantage. The US has used much of its political clout and its military over the last 30 years to secure it for its use. The Russians have gone full tilt to develop their domestic oil production and use it as a tool to wield more influence over eastern Europe. China and India need more of it daily, and are using what political power they have to stay in favor with oil producing nations. The industrialized countries who don't have oil or the military or political means to secure a supply of it, are doing all they can to wean their economies off of oil (such as the Netherlands and Germany).

All of this is precisely the problem. Oil it TOO important to the world economy, and is a primary cause of almost all the problems, from conflicts in the Mid-East, to Islamic-extremist terrorsim, to global warming. The world needs to balance its need - not completely disavow oil, because that would cause problems of its own - but to use other sources of energy as the world economy grows. Everyone knows this has to happen, but the real power in today's global economy, the international corporations who can operate above the laws of nations, doesn't want it to happen, because they got rich off of oil, and see it as their best way to stay rich.

It's sad but true - the world is ruled by money, and oil is money.

Answer 5

Oil does not need to be our national lifeblood. The fact is that we now use about 5 TeraWatts (TW) of energy from petroleum, most of this goes into cars. We get 3 TW from natural gas, 3 TW from coal, 1.5TW from biomass, 0.8TW from nuclear, 0.3TW from hydroelectric, and another 0.3TW from renewable sources. We spend 40% of our energy driving our gas guzzling cars and SUVs.

More than half the U.S. population lives in urban areas. If we had to, we could take public transit. But we don’t want to. We want to drive our fat behinds two blocks in our two-ton pickup truck to buy another six-pack of beer.

Our addiction to oil can be solved very easily. In 2006, electricity from oil cost $0.08 per kW-hr. That makes oil more expensive than nuclear, coal, gas, wind, etc., except solar. If oil is kept above $60 per barrel, and you will see consumption of oil drop.

People tend to underestimate technological innovation of the American people. America can be an energy exporting country if we had the will to. Cellulosic ethanol can become a renewable energy resource. Native grasses enriched our plains for thousands of years, depositing organic matter into the soil. These grasses don’t need fertilizers. It can be a solution if we can keep Big Oil from killing this nascent technology. .

Answer 6

"Lives for oil" is protesting not the idea of oil as much as it is protesting the idea of cheap oil so that Americans can continue to waste it like it's going out of fashion (which it is, since it is a finite resource).

In the United States, there are 180 million registered cars and SUVs. We own 25% of the worlds automobiles, but have only 5% of the worlds population, and we want cheap gas to propel all of these automobiles. Americans have become a spoiled, selfish people. Do we really need every drop of the 20.7 million barrels of petroleum products we consume each and every day? That's just over 3 times as much as China, the next largest consumer, goes through every day, and China has 4 times as many people. No, we don't need all that oil, but rather than drive fuel efficient cars, rather than conserve through public transportation and car pooling, rather than turn down the temperature in winter, rather than using the walk in rather than the drive through, we'd rather continue in our methods of conspicuous consumption. That means cheap oil, even if people have to die for it. It's pathetic.

And just in case someone starts harping on about the middle east and how important they are to us, Persian Gulf countries make up only 11% of our daily consumption of crude. Our #1 source of crude is ourselves. Our #1 source of imported crude is Canada, followed by Mexico. Think about it; cut back consumption by 11% and you can kiss the middle east goodbye. God forbid!

Answer 7

Oh My God. Talk about drinking the Kool-aid. Perhaps it needs to be spelled out for you. This war and the lives it has cost is (among other things) about CHEAP oil. Of course that backfired and because we did not stabilize the region or restore the Iraqi oil industry, the price of oil has gone way up anyway.

Do you realize that North America (The US, Canada and Mexico) has all of the oil it needs for the next 50-100 years? Yes, it is expensive and dirty to extract and use when compared to what comes out of the middle east. And as long as they are willing to sell it to us at an affordable price, better we use their oil instead of ours. But it is not worth one human life. Shame on you for saying so.

Answer 8

We have the available technology to switch to geothermal power (and geothermally generated eletricity rather than oil) at a tiny fraction of the money being spent on the Iraq war. Oil is kept as the lifeblood of your country merely to facilitate those who profit from the petroleum industry.

Answer 9

You are describing the most utilitarian rationale for oil need and use, the political opposition to this viewpoint uses mindless propaganda without having any feasible idea about alternative solutions. Parroting of some demagogues is just an expression of being mentally handicapped (as they would like to express their PC attitude).

Answer 10

Well, it more like the USA could spend more time tapping their own resources then sacrificing it's people to obtain oil from other country's. Imagaine the lives and money that would be saved ...

Answer 11

if it werent for oil, all of these lazy know nothing urban know it alls would starve to death within a month. without oil, we cant feed the world. try feeding the world with organic farming. will never happen. the land will wear out to soon. petrolium biproduct fertilizer and diesle powered farm machinery has kept africa and american cities from being vacant. all of these organic hippies need to get down on their knees and than guiya or krishna or who ever for good old black oil and pray that it keeps flowing. sure, we should look for alternatives, just so we can tell the camel jockeys to take a hike and save our oil to fight wars and for manufacturing.