{"id":21690,"date":"2022-03-09T14:56:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T22:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21690"},"modified":"2022-03-09T14:56:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T22:56:59","slug":"five-myths-about-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/09\/five-myths-about-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"FIVE MYTHS ABOUT OIL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ross Pomeroy<\/a>
June 29, 2015 (realclearscience.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world runs on oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, in 2011, the 6.965 billion people on Earth collectively used about 3,669,353,105 gallons of the stuff, combusting it in cars as gasoline, laying it down in asphalt, and processing it into lubricants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our reliance on this energy-dense liquid prompts questions. For starters, what the heck is it? Oil consists of hydrocarbons \u2014 compounds containing carbon and hydrogen \u2014 and other carbon-containing (organic) compounds. When combusted, oil\u2019s hydrogen-carbon bonds split apart, releasing a large amount of energy, energy that can be harnessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil is cheered by some and maligned by others. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. Out of the incessant discussion, myths have arisen. Here are five of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #1: Oil is mostly dinosaur bones.<\/strong> Oil is a \u201cfossil fuel,\u201d formed from the remains of organisms that died millions of years ago. Dinosaurs certainly fit this description, and we dig up their fossilized bones all the time! But though dinosaurs reigned for 135 million years, not many of them died in a position where they could be buried and crushed over the eons into coal, natural gas, or oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you took all of the dinosaurs that ever lived and\u2026 squished them up in order to get the oil out of them, we\u2019d probably go through that oil in\u2026 a couple of days,\u201d paleontologist Jack Horner told Vsauce<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In actuality, the oil used to make the gasoline in your car almost certainly formed from oceanic microorganisms like plankton and algae that lived millions, if not billions, of years ago. When they died, they sank to the bottom of the ocean and began to decompose. Over time, they became buried. As more and more sediment formed on top of them, heat and pressure crushed them into fossil fuels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #2: Americans use the most oil.<\/strong> This is only partly true. By far and away, the U.S. consumes the most oil of any other country<\/a>. But on a per capita basis<\/a>, Americans aren\u2019t the world-leading gas-guzzlers. We rank 22nd, behind countries like Singapore, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Bermuda, and our neighbor to the north: Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #3: All crude oil is black.<\/strong> When you think of oil, you probably picture a black sludge. Most oil is black<\/a>, but it can be yellow, red, or even green in hue. Crude oil\u2019s color is a clear indicator of quality \u2014 the more contaminants that are present, the darker it will be. The highest quality oil will actually resemble the vegetable or olive oil in your kitchen: amber or golden in color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Myth #4. The first commercial oil well was in the U.S.<\/strong> Though Edwin Drake\u2019s relatives might claim otherwise, their ancestor\u2019s commercial oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania was not the first of its kind<\/a>. Wells in Russia, Poland, and Romania were already in operation. Drake\u2019s well<\/a> did, however, attract the first great wave of investment into oil drilling and refining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth #5. The world will run out of oil very soon.<\/strong> Oil\u2019s demise has been greatly exaggerated for decades. There\u2019s no question that fossil fuels are finite, but predicting when they will run dry is no easy task. Proven reserves continue to increase<\/a> the more we explore and as technology advances. It may be more likely<\/a> that humanity will phase out the use of fossil fuels before we even run out. But with demand still increasing<\/a>, nobody precisely knows when that will be, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Images: AP, Niagara<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ross PomeroyJune 29, 2015 (realclearscience.com) The world runs on oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, in 2011, the 6.965 billion people on Earth collectively used about 3,669,353,105 gallons of the stuff, combusting it in cars as gasoline, laying it down in asphalt, and processing it into lubricants…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21691,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21690\/revisions\/21691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}