I had no idea that so many of the things I use every day are made from oil. I always thought that if I drove my car less, or if Americans in general drove less, or we invested more in renewable energy, then like magic (Alakazaam!) our oil addiction would be over. Unfortunately it's not so simple. Telephones, shampoo, car seats, tires, hair brushes, golf balls, even prosthetic limbs are all petroleum based products. Don't even get me started on plastics! It is literally never-ending, this worldwide dependence on oil. This is why I can completely understand the time, energy, and money invested in new technologies to extract fossil fuels from the earth.
We have already seen, especially in recent times, the limitations of current technology used to extract crude oil from the earth. Billions of dollars of revenue was lost due to BP latest oil spill, but it strikes me as amazingly ironic that some of the detergents used to clean wildlife caught in the spill are made from petrol by-products themselves. The most viable solution in the long-term would probably be to both refine the existing oil extraction technologies while also reducing oil dependence, but I'm willing to bet that those well positioned to do the research would rather spend their efforts on money making procedures than on energy (natural resource) saving ventures.
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