My thoughts on oil and fossil fuel

No, I don't. When humanity first discovered oil, they had no clue what it was. All they knew was that it was good fuel. That's all they knew, so they tried to find it. Years and years found and a society was built around oil, and by the time we realized what it is, how it forms, and what it does, it was too late. We couldn't just up and change. It will take decades yet for us to leave oil, but are doing it, and one day we will no longer use it. But it wasn't our fault. We didn't know. Not at first.

Yes you are right but the oil is not only responsible for the pollution you and we suffered.But at time humans have no other better choice than oil for producing energy.Somebody has to set some inspiring example in front of the world,it may be a an organisations,govt,developed countries and may be developing countries etc but it is little difficult for developing countries because they are busy in achieving basic need like food,shelter and clothing.So somebody has to take this tuff responsiblity I guess.whats your thought???

I don't know if it was "wrong" or not, but I do think we should have kept on exploring instead of thinking it was the end-all. I also have to think that you may be right that by pulling it out of the earth we somehow may have upset the delicate balance.

Well, I was once told that oil countries like in the middle east will collapse once all their fuel fuel were consumed.

I don't think it was a bad decision, we just didn't know how to use it wisely. You see, here in Brazil, almost every car uses ethanol instead of gas nowadays. We just have to find a point of equilibrium between fossil fuels and renewable energy. We can save the world, but everyone needs to do their part (Yes USA, I am talking to you)

Sure Ill agree we took a wrong turn when we became Dependant on oil, however at the time when it was first discovered it was a very good energy source and does pack a very good punch versus other fuel sources especially at the time oil was first discovered. Its my hope that someday we will truly be independent of oil and will use other forms of energy that will be better for our planet so that generations in the future will have a decent place to live. Only time will tell.

hi at the time I do not think we had the other technologies that wehave to day and they found this oily stuff would burn and produce heat etz so we had cars and furnaces etc but now we have wind power and solar ;power and eltrical power so we could be working to switch off to ougt methods now we know some other powers.

It is too little, too late to change something like this. I think that we've become rather dependent on oil. If we cannot no longer use it somehow, then there are going to be big, big problems. However, at the same time, there is really nothing to do about it. What is done is already been done and whatever after effects that have happened is for us to deal with. Who is to say that a so called clearer source of energy might not be as clean when it is actually used in mass. That is just something to ponder. What if we are trading in oil which can contaminate for something worse. Better the devil that we know than one that we do not know. Still perhaps sometimes we would have been better off in certain aspects, but it is just something to think about how much the world would have changed if we had not struck oil.

I don't believe we took a wrong turn but followed the natural order of things. Oil was discovered at a time when we needed something we could use that would work better than coal or wood and oil came to fill that need. If we had not initially used oil, a lot of our modern technology would not have been developed. The uses of oil (plastics, vinyls, etc) go beyond fuel and they led us into the wave of technology that we use now. That said, I also believe that oil has long outlived its purpose and it is high time we encouraged industry to depart from it. I have taken steps to minimize my reliance on oil. I want to buy an electric golf cart for tooling around town in...grocery shopping, running errands. I live in a small town (under 2000) so I don't really need to be using my car as much as I do. I recently acquired an old shopping cart which will enable me to do my shopping without using my car when the weather is conducive. I have not flown in a plane in years partly because I came to realize just how much fuel they burn when they fly. If you look closely, you will notice the airline industry as a whole is in decline and until they find alternative fuels, they will continue to be in decline and airlines will continue to go bankrupt. Cars themselves have become more and more fuel efficient and the development of the hybrids and electric vehicles has come as more people are open to using them. As we as a people become more and more eco-conscious, the cleaner, better technologies will become more widely available and accepted until the gas-burners are phased out entirely. Look at the bailouts the car industry needed not too long ago...this was a direct result of people not buying their gas burners as much as they needed to meet their expenses. Frankly, the greed of the executives in those companies were a huge contributing factor. Personally, I have never bought a new car, never will. I can't afford to spend five years' salary on a vehicle (I make less than $9k per year on disability). Even if I were still working and making what I used to I could not afford to spend an entire year's salary on a car. And the bigwigs in the auto industry continue to take home millions of dollars every year. But then, I'm getting off topic. Sorry. When we stop supporting elected officials who are in the oil company's pocket we will see a big change in the use of oil. When you go to vote, check out where your candidates get their funding. The last several presidents have been oil men. What does that tell you? When more people stop being sheep and start seriously looking into who they are voting for, then we will see some positive changes in our government and our oil industry will then die. I hope it comes soon.

Without oil and fossil fuel, we might not be able to achieve what we have today. stuff like electricity, cars, clean water, even mylot. it might not be the cleanest or safest source of energy we have but that's what we've got to start with. I believe in the future, we won't be too dependent on oil and fuel as there are better, cleaner and safer alternative. :D