Why Be Green? Oil Supplies

Welcome to Why Be Green.  I hope to shed some light on the importance of being green, also known as being eco friendly.

Let's start with oil.

Since discovering oil, the world has gone into a frenzy.  We currently use approx 93.25 million barrels of oil each and everyday (that is approx 4 Billion US Gallons).  That is 1.5 Trillion gallons/year.  You could fill up approx 15,000,000 US homes (1500 sq. ft.) with the amount of oil we are pulling out of the ground each year.  Can you imagine 15 million homes filled with oil?  That's a lot of oil.

So let's face it, oil is finite.  It takes millions of years to create the oil-at least the natural way, yet we are consuming it at an incredible rate and nobody in the know is willing to tell us just how much is left.  In fact some countries may be hiding the true numbers of reserves.  Time magazine (Feb. 2011) reported that Saudi Arabia may have overstated by 40% how much oil they actually have left in the ground.

Why do you think we are now producing oil from the tar sands in Canada and building the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Texas through the Ogallala Water Aquifer (largest aquifer in the US)?  Because it is easy?  Guess again.  It is some of the most difficult and expensive oil to produce, yet we are doing it anyway.  Perhaps it is because it is all that's left out there to quench our incredible thirst.

We have created a society based on oil.  Whether it is watching TV, going to the movies, buying  food, clothing, shelter etc.  Everything is based on oil, yet we will run out of oil at some point in time.  It is inevitable.  What then?

It's a scary thought that nobody wants to address, but we need to and we need to address it now.

Please join me in my journey to educate society on not just Why Be Green, but also how to be green.