In this present world, oil is the most demanded product that we use in everyday life.

According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) the Global Oil

demand increased by 6% to an average of 96.5 million barrels per day and expected continuous

increase in coming years. The potential of oil is increasing every year at the same time the

innovation of the modern world. Technology,transportation, electricity and many more depend

on oil to give us a convenient and progressive living. In this case the supply of oil was

apparently going to run out and researchers found a way to sustain this demand of oil by

exploring oil in biodiversity which says it solves the problem. I do not agree with this idea

because it is a threat and destruction of our biodiversity and many living organisms will suffer,

including ourselves.

Oil exploration leads us into many troubles in the future, maybe it looks beneficial because it

is a response to a world oil crisis but causes a lot of side effects. Griffin (2018) found that oil

exploration is not safe to establish due to cases of oil spills that are ruining habitats and killing

the organisms that live there, destroying their food sources and poisoning them (p.1).

These are upcoming effects when oil exploration succeeds. It may cause toxicity on water

and land masses wherein it pollutes the water and land. Based on studies the toxicity of

acidization fluids used in oil exploration are high ranging 6% to 18% of chemical concentration

and the waste returns can be highly acidic (Malloy, Stenstorm & Suffet, 2015,p.78). It spreads

over the surface in a thin layer that stops oxygen getting to the plants and animals that live in, it

harms animals and insects, prevents photosynthesis in plants, disrupts the food chain, produces

harmful substances in drinking water and takes a long time to recover.

The extinction of endangered and endemic animals, plants, and microorganisms that helps us to

sustain and balance the ecosystem. Healthy biodiversity is essential to human health. As species

disappear, infectious diseases rise in humans and throughout the animal kingdom, so extinctions

directly affect our health and chances for survival as a species (Platt, 2010). Lastly, this oil

exploration causes the climate change, according to data by the Environmental Protection

Agency, carbon dioxide accounts for 65 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and it

primarily comes from the production and combustion of fossil fuels, as well as deforestation and

other destruction of the plants and lands that absorb carbon dioxide. Oil and gas development is

set to generate a massive amount of climate emissions.It is far from being clean energy sources.

Even the most efficient natural gas plant still emits about half of the carbon dioxide emitted by a

coal plant (Ruas, 2020, p.11).

Many things we must consider in oil exploration. I choose to suffer on losing oil rather than

losing many lives and homes. We can create and research more alternative ways of gaining oil,

for example instead of using oil and fuel in the sources of electricity we can use wind, hydro and

solar energy to replace the uses of oil. We cannot live without biodiversity but we can live

without using oil whether you choose to live in a toxic environment because of oil exploration or

have a healthy environment because we choose to keep our biodiversity. Biodiversity is the

greatest treasure we have, we must preserve and protect biodiversity. It is a home for thousands

of habitats, millions of different species, billions of different individuals and trillions of different

characteristics we all have. A place where all variety of life on earth depends on it, the more

biodiversity the more secure all life on earth is, including ourselves.
 References

Griifin, L. (2018). Environmental Impacts of Oil Extraction,

https://sciencing.com/list-7459738-environmental-impacts-oil-extraction.html

Platt, J. (2010). Humans are More at Risk from Diseases as Biodiversity Disappears

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/humans-are-more-at-risk-from-diseas

es-as-biodiversity-disappears/

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opec.asp

Environmental Protection Agency

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

Malloy,T., Stenstorm,M., & Suffet, I.H., (2018). Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry,

p.78

Ruas, C. (2020). The Climate Report 2020: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Public Lands.

p. 11