Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
Petroleum, Refineries, and the FutureMain MenuAppreciating Oil Refinery ScienceBy Shailesh ThapaExploring Pollution and the Environmental Impacts Associated with Petroleum RefiningBy Bailey KlauseDisaster Risks and What Refineries Can do to Best PrepareBy Nick SteinhoferThe (In)visible Violence of Petroleum RefineriesBy Klara BeinhornGlobal Environmental Justice: Holding Oil Refineries ResponsibleBy Sam HermannHealth, Petroleum Refineries, and the FutureBy: Jake RamesContributorsOil Boom Inquiry 2017Jonathan Steinwandc8ac305627e647489509eb85de97dd9cc5413a58
Pollution and Environmental Impacts of Refining
12017-12-01T17:20:47-08:00Bailey Klauseb72dc980b1bb6bd5821b729872d3576ef3d45bff2704910By Bailey Klauseimage_header5608982017-12-04T12:45:22-08:00Bailey Klauseb72dc980b1bb6bd5821b729872d3576ef3d45bffImage: Flickr - Rainbirder - Cooking the Planet. By Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland (Cooking the Planet!) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
People need to care about the sustainability of the petroleum industry considering the huge role oil plays in our lives. Although I agree with people who believe we need to stop using oil, it is not possible for our current society to give up this resource without major changes in the way virtually everything is done. Oil is by far the largest source of energy to power transportation around the world. The U.S. Energy Information Administration found that “In 2016, nearly three-fourths of total U.S. petroleum consumption was in the transportation sector” (“U.S. Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil”). If we stopped using oil today, without doing any infrastructural changes, our society would not be equipped to handle the daily needs of life. As energy specialists Steve Hallett and John Wright describe in “Imagining a World Without Oil,” our lives would be utter chaos. Not only could we not manage to get to work, but shipments would not be able to reach their destination. That means food trucks could not deliver groceries, coal could not be shipped to power plants, and electricity would soon fail. Also, many of the products we use on a daily basis are made from oil. As Hallett and Wright reported, “The list of essentials that we’d soon be doing without is prodigious: virtually all plastics, paints, medicines, hospital machines that go ‘bleep’, Barbie dolls, ballpoint pens, breast implants, golf balls…” This illustrates that, although it would be a good thing for sustainability, we cannot simply give up oil. We will need to find a sustainable way to continue to use oil while transitioning to alternative fuels and energy sources.
Hallet, Steve, and John Wright. "Imagining a world without oil." The Washington Post 21 Apr. 2011. Web.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. “U.S. Crude and Petroleum Products Explained: Use of Oil.” EIA. U.S. Department of Energy, 19 Sept. 2017. Web. 22 Nov. 2017.
