Life without petrol essay
Answers
Have you ever wondered what would be the aftermath if the world’s oil reserves dry out? What will happen to our cities, our food, and our very way of life? It will be the worst nightmare for the whole wide world creating chaos and panic through every nation. Oil has been used as a modern economic fuel for more than a century. Imagine if all of this disappears. All the oil from the world dries out suddenly from Florida oil rigs to Saudi oil fields to North Pacific off-shore rigs to Tar sands in Alberta, Canada. The world will experience a major economic setback as all the oil that drives our cars, flies our planes, powers our factories and even the oil below the ground vanishes.
We have already explored and taken more than a trillion barrels of oil from the subsurface but what if it suddenly dries out? The drying up of oil reserves is a crisis that many scientists have predicted over the years and when this will turn to reality, the world will surely react.
Oil well and storage tanks
One Day without Oil:
Once the news of the depletion of oil reaches the people, everyone will rush to get their tanks filled, even if it may be for the last time. There will be huge lines at gas stations all over the world and the shortage of oil will lead to the hike in the price of oil per barrel as well. It will be like an economic crisis like that of 9/11 after which stock trading was shutdown in US. 2 trillion dollars of oil stocks will become worthless. Thousands of boats carrying billions of oil will be travelling throughout the world whereas the major exporters of oil such as Saudi Arabia and Russia will call back their boats certainly to conserve their own oil reserves. The US will be most heavily affected nation since it imports more oil than any other country in the world. US produces around 8 million barrels of oil daily but the usage is double the amount produced. The 1973 oil embargo caused many stations to run out of gas but a situation of such nature will be far worse causing thousands of stations to run dry. Every country has oil in reserve that is hidden away for strategic purposes. To save oil, the governments around the world will take drastic measures to conserve their reserves. Airplanes, boats, trains, all but the most vital transportations of the world will remain functional. The 4 million people who use air transport will be stranded throughout the world. More than half of the people working in the oil industry will be jobless within the day. Furthermore as the future of major industrial plants is dependent on the provision of oil and without any oil, production would be halted rendering more people jobless. The oil crisis will ignite a chain reaction that will cripple every part of our life, our hospitals, our food and our power. But after one day without oil, it will be just the beginning of a global crisis.
Joblessness And Unemployment
Five Days without Oil:
Within five days of oil depletion, the basic human needs will become out of reach. Food terminals across the world will be closed. Terminals from which several hundred trucks used to leave with groceries and fruits will be sitting idle without the oil. The groceries will become scarce and costly. Around 30% of fresh fruits and vegetables don’t make it to shelves due to small imperfections but during a crisis everything will be up for grabs. It takes on an average about one football field farmland to raise food for just one person for a year. Many countries import such commodities but without any oil to transport them, food shortage after a certain time period will be inevitable. In an ironic twist of events, animals raised for food will face starvation as an adult cow eats around 100 pounds of feed per day. Food will not be the only concern since the fragile power system will also collapse. Around 40% of the world’s electricity comes from coal burning power plants. All the coal is usually transported through trains but without oil train will no longer be running. Blackouts will start spreading across the globe as the cities that are dependent on oil for electricity generation will be affected the worst. Law and order situation will start deteriorating as well as looters will start foraging for food and cooking oil. Cooking oil can be used as an alternate for diesel fuel and since a diesel engine is more efficient, it gives much better mileage as well.