Impacts
Over the years, the usage of petroleum and its byproducts have had a lot of impacts on the environment. The environmental impact of petroleum is often negative because it is toxic to almost all forms of life.
No doubt petroleum usage is very important, but with almost all things in life that has an advantage, there is always a disadvantage.
Carbon Di-Oxide (CO2) Emissions; this is the worst impact from the use of petroleum till date on the environment.
A variety of human activities leads to emission to CO2 , but the largest source of CO2 emission globally is the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas; all by products of petroleum. Production industries that use petroleum products such as mineral and metal production industries are also responsible for CO2 emissions.
With the increased consumption of petroleum, CO2 emissions are increased as well. CO2 is a greenhouse gas which traps the suns heat and results in global warming. Hence with the increase in CO2 consumption, we have an increase in the effect of global warming. With the rate at which global economies are increasing, CO2 emissions would keep increasing.
CO2 emissions also increase the level of acidity in sea water which may adversely affect organisms living in water. Its emission also contributes to acid rain which is dangerous for trees. CO2 is also responsible for smog in cities which is a type of air pollution.
There are various global warming impacts such as severe storms, species extinction, changes in precipitation, flooding, rising sea levels, drought, changes in range of disease, loss of biodiversity, changing forest, unsustainable development, heat waves, water shortages, populations are at risk, reduced growing seasons and a lot more.
The top five countries in the world that emit the most C02 due to burning of fossil fuels or consumption of petroleum would be China, United States, India, Russia and Japan.
World CO2 emissions (click to enlarge)
Petroleum-Contaminated Soil and ground water;
Exploration of petroleum have caused major detrimental impacts to soils, surface and ground waters. These impacts arise primarily from the improper disposal of large volumes of saline water produced with oil and gas, from accidental hydrocarbon and produced water releases, and from abandoned oil wells that were not correctly sealed. Not all oil released from land sources is quickly washed away to sea, however. Pipeline and oil-well accidents, unregulated industrial waste, and leaking underground storage tanks can all permanently contaminate large areas of soil, making them economically useless as well as dangerous to the health of organisms living in and around them. Removing or treating soil contaminated by petroleum is especially urgent because the hydrocarbons can leach into the underlying groundwater and move into human residential areas.
Soil contaminated with oil
Oil spills
Oil spills are the release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbons into the environment due to human activity, and are a form of pollution. The term often refers to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters. Oil spills include releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, as well as heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil. Oil spills do serious environmental damage that takes decades to recover from. While oil spills do occur naturally, and have over time, the effects are often catastrophic for the area affected. Oil does break down naturally from biological and chemical decay, but it takes time.
Gulf oil spill
Other Impacts
The other effects of the use of petroleum are; we are running out of it. We consume much more of petroleum than we produce. It contains some cancer causing compounds such as benzene. Drilling for oil is becoming more expensive because we are drilling deeper right now to find new reserves. Political instability in oil producing regions and also severe weather conditions in these regions may disrupt production of oil.