Critical questions - Research Paper Example

Environmental critical questions SHOULD WE DRILL FOR OFFSHORE OIL? Offshore drilling is the technique of getting oil from the sediments that lie underneath the ocean’s surface. Since time immemorial, this extraction has been intensively controversial with many environmentalists campaigning against it. Offshore drilling has a lot of environmental, economic and political impacts. Even, though, offshore oil drilling has brought many economic benefits to the region where it is carried out, it has also brought more negative than positive environmental effects.

Offshore drilling causes serious threats and disturbance to the marine ecosystem. Firstly, the development of the oil drilling plant in the water leads to congestion in the marine life, in turn, making them migrate to spacious areas. Oil spillage to the water caused by the drilling can lead to the release of toxins. Subsequently, when marine life encounters the toxins, they get genetic disorders and even death. The machines used to drill the oil are operated by humans and use fuel to do a lot of things.

These machines usually need cooling occasionally, and the cooling usually takes place in the water. This leads to the transmission of the heat and ends up heating the surrounding water thus cause temperature imbalance1. In turn, this imbalance causes the marine organisms that live the surroundings to migrate to favorable environments. Concurrently, the heat may also lead to the death of the marine life around due to exposure to extreme temperatures. Lastly, offshore drilling leads to pollution in the water by damping wastes such as mud and other rock particles onto the surface of the water.

SHOULD CARS BE MORE EFFICIENT?The quest for making the mode of transport more efficient has been there over an exceedingly long period in history. We have evolved from animal transport, to carriage carts and now to cars and more sophisticated modes of transport. Nevertheless, this evolution has come with a cost. Cars have made our day-to-day lives easier making the movement from one place to another fast. The use of cars has led to the environmental degradation through the constant emission of fumes and gasses to the air.

These fumes and gasses, when inhaled by human beings and animals, can cause respiratory problems. For example in human beings, apart from the respiratory problems, these fumes with toxins can cause serious diseases like lung cancer. The infiltrations of the harmful fumes have also led to global warming because of allowing the penetration of harmful rays to the ecosystem. This is because of global warming. The extraction of fuel from the earth has also led to the destruction of the environment.

Because of these negative environmental effects, cars should be made efficient. Cars that are more efficient will lead to the use of less fuel or even the use of alternative fuel such as solar energy or electricity. The idea of using efficient cars has been welcomed by many prompting manufacturers to gear their production towards manufacturing such cars2. Even though the manufacture is a bit expensive when starting, it will be less expensive in the end and will lead to saving the environment and our lives, as well.

BibliographyFreudenburg, William and Gramling Robert. Oil in Troubled Waters: Perception, Politics, and the Battle Over Offshore Drilling. New York: State University of New York, 1994.“Benefits and challenges.” Fuel economy.gov. Accessed April 23 2012 http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fcv_benefits.shtml