Don't mind me everybody; just posting my Society and Environment Economics/Oil assignment, just incase my printer isn't working.
Oil as a Resource
[spoiler] Oil by Helen Le
Oil is a non-renewable resource. We only have a limited amount of it here on our planet, which we are using at a rapidly increasing rate. This is turning oil into a scarce resource. We use it everyday in the production of many products, to power machines in factories. We also use it as fuel in our many forms of transport; in fact, 70% of our total oil use is for our transport. A further 98% of that is used for cars, society's main form of transport. As our society develops, population and technology wise, our demand for a resource increases, and the supply decreases; this is what is happening with our oil resource. Because we only have a limited amount of oil, we will soon run out. At the moment, we are already using a lot, making it scarce.
In the interview, Dr Ali Samsam Bakhtiari discussed the decreasing amount of oil we have on our planet. He said that we cannot produce much more oil than we are today, in the future. As a result of this, the price of oil would go up. This interview was conducted back in August 2004, exactly 3 years ago. He predicted that if the price of oil went up, the price of petrol would increase and in a few years time (2006, 2007) the price per litre of petrol in Australia would be around $1.10, sometimes more. This is exactly what has happened today, as Australians are paying on average around $1.20 per litre of petrol.
Many nations worldwide have expanded the wealth of their economy through oil, in some way or another. For example, in China, oil is used in massive quantities. It is one of the major exporters in the world, so it uses much oil in the production of goods, as well as for fuel in cars, motorcycles and other vehicles. As China gets wealthier, more and more industries are opened and developed. This in turn will increase the demand for oil, and then the consumption amount of oil. Because of the global economy's growth, the idea of more industries caused by increasing wealth is becoming a reality. Economic growth is vital to keep our sustainable standard of living, so the amount of industries in the world will keep expanding to increase our wealth, and keep up the standard of living. This means that as long as we are keep living as comfortably as we are now, the amount of oil we use will increase more and more. In short, we are dooming ourselves, and the future.
The increase in the price of oil will affect peoples' ability to purchase other goods and services. If the price of oil increases, the major dilemma in the majority of society's individual's lives will be the motor vehicle. A certain amount of income from each car user is devoted to the commodity of petrol. Because of the rising oil/petrol prices, more and more money will be spent on petrol. This will then affect the amount of other goods and services that people can buy. The opportunity cost has been made, because money has been devoted to oil. For example, if the money is used to buy petrol instead of a pair of shoes, then the opportunity cost has been the pair of shoes, as the person has lost the opportunity to have the shoes.
The rising cost of oil will affect people not only through their use of motor vehicles; it will also affect their standard of living. The price of many goods and services will rise with the price of oil, and hence people who are poorer (i.e. lower-working **** will have to put their necessities first and cut down on their wants. e.g. instead of buying a new TV or a new pair of shoes, people would have to buy food, pay bills and such instead. Eventually, the cost of living will be much too high, and the poorer people will be living very inadequately.
This map shows the largest oil reserves in the world. At the rate we are going, we will soon use up all of them, in our industries and everyday life.
http://lugar.senate.gov/graphics/energy/graphs/Worldwide_Oil_Reserves.gif
Grey - United Kingdom
Pink - Yemen
Violet - Indonesia
Murky yellow - Ecuador
Dull brown - Oman
Orange-yellow - India
Orange - Sudan
Bright yellow - Azerbaijan
Bright green - Norway
Lime green - Angola
Dull pink - Brazil
Green - Nigeria
Cream - Mexico
Orange -
Red - China
Bright blue - United States
Dull blue - Nigeria
Cyan - Libya
Dull brown - Kazakhstan
Dark blue - Russia
Dark red - Venezuela
Purple - United Arab Emirates
Magenta - Kuwait
Light orange - Iraq
Bright green - Iran
Lilac - Canada
Grey - Saudi Arabia [/spoiler]
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