ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE DISCOVERY AND USE OF OIL
When oil was discovered about a couple of centuries ago, the world depended on muscle power and animal work to cultivate the land and grow enough vegetables to feed the population. Also, industrial production depended on animal work.
When oil was found, humanity was able to invent oil-powered machines which could do as much work in one hour as 100 people in a whole day. Then the world started to develop much faster than before, because construction, agricultural works and transport became much faster and efficient. In addition, crops were much more abundant and did not fail, because pesticides and fertilizers, which come from petroleum too, helped to protect harvests from bugs and production increased.
However, not everything was positive. On the one hand, people have so much power to transform and degrade the land that we are harming our natural environment seriously. Furthermore, the machines which use oil fuels send so much co2 into the atmosphere that plants cannot absorb it, and this is causing greenhouse effect and global warming, which are affecting the balance of the atmosphere, causing a climate change: temperatures rise and there are droughts and floods.
Besides, we consume so many products and produce so much waste that we are creating huge dumps that are polluting the soil and the waters; apart from exhausting the earth's natural resources.
In conclusion, either we reduce consumption and look for new and cleaner sources of energy or it will become more and more difficult to live in our planet.
Excellent subtitled video
