oil (Page 11)

Sea birds are landing on California?s beaches covered withoil, but there is no oil leak in the ocean. Scientistsstudying the situation say the oil is not coming upnaturally from the ocean floor. They are planning to analyzethe oil coming off the birds’ bodies so they can try toidentify its source.

Charlie LeDuff writes in the New York Times that there is anoil slick floating someplace?scientists don’t know exactlywhere?along the California coast. So far, it’s killed 700seabirds and injured 700 more, and one sea lion has beentaken to a veterinarian. As many as 5,000 seabirds mayeventually be harmed by becoming coated with oil and unableto fly. the oil also affects their ability to reproduce.
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While most oil experts think we’re running out fast, a small group thinks that oil is a renewable substance, produced under high heat and pressure deep within the Earth’s crust. That means we would never run out of oil, since it’s always being created. However, if we keep burning it forever, it will be the end of us, since it produces greenhouse gases that accelerate global warming.
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Five foreign oil workers were recently killed in Saudi Arabia, meaning terrorists may get control of the oil industry there. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons the U.S. is in Iraq. If this keeps occurring, expect to see even higher oil prices. Meanwhile, according to Whitley, we have a disaster in the Middle East.
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If this is the case, would alternate fuels such as wind and hydrogen, which are available everywhere, mean an end to war? If we change to nuclear power when oil runs low, will wars break out in countries with large uranium deposits?

Paul Reynolds writes in bbcnews.com that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was partly caused by a U.S. decision in 1941 to limit oil exports to Japan, in response to the Japanese invasion of China. Japan was almost totally reliant on imported oil from the U.S. Japan still relies on imported oil but now it comes from the Middle East, like ours does.
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