(First of all before starting off to write, I would like to inform you that I am a Korean currently studying in high school in an international school as a sophomore. Some points of mine could not be professional, as I am not a professional writer or scholar of these matters. I would like to write about this topic with my background of learning from my humanities classes, and what I've learned so far)
As human population increased over few centuries, the world has just kept expanding its carrying capacity for it to bear. In the 1940s, there were about 3 billion people in the world; now there are more than 6.5 billion people, demanding more than the world can afford. We have been using the world's resources for our development in technology, and to satisfy the increased population of people. Through this procedure, however, our most important oil is depleting, which our whole world is currently depending on for energy and therefore economy. Oil has peaked its point, and the lack of oil would become a major problem since with no oil there would be no energy to have the things we need.
Oil, was popularily used since early 1900s and is still used today. Today, oil functions everything; oil drives our cars, gives us our electricity, and is a factor needed to produce more than 5000 products of companies globally. However, oil is not a renewable energy. Our oil use has caused 50% of the world's oil to disappear. Oil is, and will still be, the most pupular energy source around the globe. In 2004, 84millions of barrels of oil were used each day, America using 23 million barrels of them. Today in 2008, it would be far worse than it was 4 years before. As we all know, oil price during 2007 December to 2008 May had increased greatly up to 160$ per barrel, though now the price had faded. Still, this could be a warning signal that oil might increase greatly in its price afterwards. There are predictions that oil price might jump up to a price of 300$ per barrel, and these are not just rough guesses, but more likely the reality of our future world. And moreover, If oil is still used like how it is today, later on there would be no oil left in our world in a few decades afterwards. Our next generation would suffer greatly if they do not have the energy for them to use. And since oil is the biggest energy maker today, there is no doubt that our economy will fall as oil will reach its depletion.
However, the situation is not that depressing. We still have a lot of solutions to try to slow down the oil shock, and get a new energy source to cover up the loss of oil. Today, people are trying to use more renewable energy, such as wind, wave, geothermal, bio, hydro, and solar energy, to be more environmetnally friendly, and to save up energy instead of wasting it. Renewable energy can be used interminably unless the source of nature which gives it is destroyed. But this isn't really common; wind will still be there, the sun would be there for at least 60 billion years (Earth might actually be dead at this point), the water would be there, the sea would still be in present, and the surface of our world would still exist for a very long time. Although these sources do not give as much energy as oil, it still is the best way to slow down the oil shock which we will be facing in the future. Although we would not be able to stop the oil shock, we still would have the time to find another valuable resource, and use that for another period of time instead of oil. And overall, all the people--especially the countries consuming a lot of oil--should stop wasting any energy provided in their lives. Most electricity you use is generated from oil, the plastic you've used and thrown away is made from oil, your credit card, your cars, your batteries, your candles, your ink, your heart valves, your lipsticks, your insect repellant, and all of those things you use for your daily lives are nearly all made from oil. We'd better save our energy, if we want this life in the future.
Although the oil price has been decreasing for the last few months, we should still not be relieved. Oil will be a huge problem in the future, and it can bring down a lot of countries' economies that are dependent upon oil. Saving oil and not wasting our energy would be the only way to slow this oil crisis and finding new valuable resources would be crucial. Eighty-four million barrels a day, is not a joke.