Global warming law

Running Head : OIL AND GLOBAL WARMING

Oil and Global Warming in Saudi Arabia Oil and Global Warming in Saudi Arabia

I . Background

Oil : An Important Resource

Oil has been identified as a very important resource it provides a lot of significant benefits to mankind . It is used for numerous purposes such as transportation , heating , electricity production , and industrial applications . It has a high energy density which makes it an efficient fuel source plus the fact that it is fairly easy to transport and store Its versatility is of great importance

, and this is proven by being by most valuable commodity in world trade (O 'Rourke Connolly , 2003 According to Doyle , it is estimated that two billion dollars switch hands in petroleum transactions , making it the world 's first trillion dollar industry (cited in O 'Rourke Connolly , 2003 . Oil is very profitable for corporations as well as for governments since oil taxes generate a lot of income . Oil is important for the national economic viability of Saudi Arabia as it accounts for more than 80 percent of business are Libya , Kuwait , Iran , and Venezuela (O 'Rourke Connolly 2003

Environmental Effects of Oil

Oil transport , refining , exploration , drilling , and extraction have had negative effects on the environment , but much attention has recently been focused on the negative environmental impacts of the use of oil . It is widely believed that burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming since carbon dioxide , an abundant greenhouse gas , is produced as oil is burned . Findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicate that around three quarters of come from fossil fuel use (O 'Rourke Connolly , 2003

To be able to fully understand the how oil use affects global warming it is necessary to get a clear understanding of the greenhouse effect The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon . Imagine a greenhouse and that is just how the greenhouse effect works . Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , water vapor , methane , and ozone trap heat thereby slowing its escape from the atmosphere . The dramatic increase in the release of greenhouse gases has brought about an abnormal increase in the average world temperature already estimated at around 1 percent at the turn of the century . However , without the greenhouse effect , the Earth would be too cold to sustain the currently thriving ecosystems (West , 2008b

Due to the fact that oil is a widely used resource and that oil produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide as it generates roughly 30 percent more carbon dioxide from every unit of energy produced ' it can be inferred that dependence on oil has extensively contributed to global warming (Barry Frankland , 2001 ,

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Importance of Oil to Saudi Arabia

In all parts of the world , oil is considered as an important resource especially in modern life . Any measures to reduce oil consumption were hampered by powerful opposition of certain governments and inter-governmental organizations (Barry Frankland , 2001 ,

.362 . Oil is particularly of great importance especially to members of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC...