EDI Lang through Lit - Essay I

TASK: The oil industry is causing irreparable harm in the environment.

Do you agree with this view? Write your essay.

PETROLEUM, which is often referred to as “black gold”, is a natural resource that accounts for a very large percentage of energy consumption in the world. This is why its extraction, refining and marketing have become vital to many industries. In the last decades, several wars between nations have broken out over the dispute for this type of fuel; but far from being only a source of political worries among some countries, it also represents a critical concern for humanity as a whole.

Oil is toxic to almost all forms of life; therefore, it provokes a large number of environmental issues: it contributes to the production of acid rain and climactic changes and to make matters worse, when things go wrong in the extraction or the transportation of petroleum from one region to another, crude spills occur and petroleum is released into the ocean or coastal waters inflicting irreparable harm in the environment. Not only water itself, but also flora and fauna populations are deeply affected.

In first place, water is most of the times renderred undrinkable, but because oil floats on top of the water, and as less sunlight penetrates into it, the process of photosynthesis of marine plants and phytoplankton is limited as well. While photosynthesis is the main means by which organic compounds and oxygen are produced, phytoplankton is a producer component in the plankton community, i.e one of the first and most necessary elements in the food chain. Unfortunately and thanks to oil spills is that large numbers of plants and wildlife are killed.

Regrettably, most of the damages produced by the contact between oil and the environment are the result of human negligence, which means that they could be prevented, if proper action was taken. The accident that took place in the Gulf of Mexico last May accounts for evidence that it is easier and cheaper for companies to share the costs of environmental damage with society than to invest on preventive contingency planning and take security measures. There is also a common belief that the reason underlying the lack of responsibility shown by petroleum companies is that their only aim is to profit from oil activity, thus disregarding the damages that they might inflict in the environment. Personally, I am inclined to believe that companies should take the decision of assuming their social responsibility and take the measures needed to stop damaging our planet.