The World's Oil Dependence and How to Cope With It

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Environmental Policy, grade: 1,3, University of Hamburg, language: English, abstract: Oil is one of these fossil fuels on which our society is dependent on in the beginning of the 21st Century. Since 1950 the world population has more than tripled, there is a growing demand for energy, especially in developing countries such as China. The more the world develops, the greater becomes its thirst for energy and oil; despite repeated calls to save it. Energy even became a national security issue. Primarily, in this paper I show and analyse the world's dependence on oil, followed by an outline of the disadvantages it comes along with. There are several reasons for why we should become independent of oil, such as its emissions, environmental destruction, climate change, resource scarcity, conflict and unethical production. Thereafter, I proceed to introduce an approach on how to reduce this dependency, focussing on renewable resources. I will conclude that it is absolutely necessary for us to become independent of oil as well as other fossil fuels and nuclear energy, which for reasons of space will not be dealt with in detail. If we do not, we will severely harm, if not destroy, our society, the environment and eventually the planet we are living on.