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Enviromental Science

1a. The OPEC’s World Energy Model (OWEM) approximates the current total estimated oil usage in the World to be 84.7 million barrels per day.   According to Nation Master, the top 5 consumers of oil are the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and Russia. The United States consumes 20,730,000 bbl/per day, or, 7,566,450,000 bbl annually, that is three times more than China, who consumes about 2,384,910,000 bbl/per year. Japan uses 2,035,970,000 bbl, Germany 967,250,000 bbl, and finally Russia consumes 912,500,000 bbl annually.
b. It is estimated that there are about 1.29 trillion barrels proven oil reserves in the world. These numbers are unreliable because countries like the UAE, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela provide incorrect data and manipulate the numbers for political reasons. Limited technology also plays a big part of the inaccurate data.
c. BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy states that the global supply of oil will be depleted in 2048. This assessment is based on our consumption of oil at current rate.
2. Ethanol and other bio fuels derived from organic materials have been considered a miracle motor vehicle elixir. However, some studies believe bio fuels can be worse for global warming. Corn and sugar cane are common sources of ethanol, but even though they emit fewer greenhouses gases than coal or oil when they are burned as fuels, these bio fuel crops releases long sequestered carbon into the atmosphere when the farmers clear out previously untouched land.   The studies show that as countries in Southeast Asia and Brazil convert their rainforests, savannas, or grasslands to produce bio fuels, it releases 17 to 420 times more carbon dioxide than the fossil fuels they replace. There are also other pressing issues such as the massive amounts of water need to irrigate the cornfields, the runoff of pesticides and nitrogen based fertilizers used by farmers could lead to increased pollution, as well as the natural gas used to make the...