10 Reasons to Be Alarmed About Our Catastrophic Oil Addiction

A US soldier walks near a Stryker vehicle during a patrol in Shahwali Kot district in Kandahar. The United States and Afghanistan pledged Tuesday to forge ties that will outlast the withdrawal of US combat forces but raised mutual fears over Afghan government corruption and civilian casualties.

Photo Credit: AFP - Tauseef Mustafa

War, terrorism, economic instability -- these are just a few of the reasons to be concerned about our addiction to oil. Here's a list of 10 reasons to be concerned:

1. Terrorism

The threat of terrorism has been crucial in shaping U.S. policy since 9/11. However, unbeknownst to many, the rise to power of radical, anti-American Islamism can be largely financially traced back to the American consumer’s demand for oil to support a cheap energy lifestyle. That the United States has in its possession only 3% of oil reserves in the world while consuming 25% of total world daily oil production should be alarming. That the majority of oil that we import comes from countries ruled by dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations should be further alarming. These OPEC nations include Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Nigeria, Venezuela and Ecuador. It is clear that many of these nations are not pro-American by any means, and some are notorious harbors and financiers of international terror networks such as Al-Qaeda. 

The importation of oil from the Persian Gulf has been, and will continue to be, a threat to the United States’ national security. Over 60% of the world’s oil is in the Middle East. Oil trade has not brought democracy and mainstream Western ideology to the region but instead quite the opposite – oil-wealthy rulers running dictatorships and promoting radical, anti-Western organizations. The perfect example is Saudi Arabia, the country that exports the most oil in the world, and whose export earnings are 90% from oil sales. According to the US News and World Report:

Starting in the late 1980s--after the dual shocks of the Iranian revolution and the Soviet war in Afghanistan--Saudi Arabia's quasi-official charities became the primary source of funds for the fast-growing jihad movement. In some 20 countries, the money was used to run paramilitary training camps, purchase weapons, and recruit new members. The charities were part of an extraordinary $70 billion Saudi campaign to spread their fundamentalist Wahhabi sect worldwide. The money helped lay the foundation for hundreds of radical mosques, schools, and Islamic centers that have acted as support networks for the jihad movement, officials say.

While to blame Americans at the pump on 9/11 might be rash, there is certainly a peculiar money trail to be followed from anti-Western terrorist groups to oil. 

2. Scarcity

It isn’t a secret that Earth is running out of oil. There was a lot of oil to begin with – about 2 trillion barrels – humans have used about one half, or 1 trillion barrels, since oil production began. The half that has already been used was the better, higher-quality liquid oil while the half that’s left is comprised of the lesser-quality liquid, semi-solid, and solid oils. Furthermore, depletion makes future oil production more expensive and difficult to acquire, to a point where it becomes no longer profitable to extract what’s left. 

The rate at which oil is currently consumed – 27 billion barrels of oil per year – is only possible for another 37 years, assuming the remaining 1 trillion barrels left in the planet could be entirely extracted. Adjustments will be required within our lifetime to adapt to non-oil lifestyles, according to James Howard Kuntsler.  

3. Suburban lifestyle

The suburban spatial structure is quintessentially American. It is what sets the United States apart from Old World, where dense, urban living is still predominant. It is ingrained into the American psyche that to strive for a home in the open-spaced, safe haven of suburbia is part of the American Dream. Federally-subsidized oil helps keep gas prices relatively affordable to allow suburban life to continue. The problem is that this spatial arrangement in the United States is almost entirely dependent on petroleum, signaling a possible crisis or shift in energy usage behaviors in the near future should oil begin to rise in cost beyond what would make it profitable for the average American to commute from suburbia to work.