The Age of Oil

Age of Oil

Some of the alternatives to oil are shale gas, tar sands, and coal and they are abundant, however, they are still a non-renewable resource and very bad on the environment in the way of pollution because the extraction and use of them emit high levels of CO2. (Turk & Bensel, 2011). However, there are better alternatives to oil, shale, and coal that are renewable, such as solar power, wind power, hydroelectric, and biofuels. The role of OPEC is to adopt agreements regarding common policy for the production and sale of oil, so when it comes reorganizing and monitoring, they should be a little more involved with not just setting the price of oil. They should help with finding it, properly monitoring the quantity, recovering the oil, which has been left behind and wasted, and helping to put into effect some of the alternatives. Because some of the alternatives are not renewable and are still considerably harmful to the planet, it might behoove the powers that be to make the environmentally friendly alternatives less expensive to acquire and put to use, that way the use of oils can be limited. According to our course materials (2011), an argument that Kammen made was that two things should happen, invest in more research regarding alternatives, to bring the prices down and energy prices should reflect their true costs, which means that countries would have to make a huge commitment to develop these renewable energy sources.

Turk, J., & Bensel, T. (2011). Contemporary environmental issues. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUSCI207.10.1)