Affect of Oil on Our Lives

People have been talking about running out of oil for a long time. There are indications that a few more discoveries are still possible. That's good news, but for how long can these reserves of oil last. Oil has been formed on earth since the creation billion of years ago and in one century we have consumed most of it. At least, we have used up the easy to extract oil and the vast reserves remaining in shale and other such marginal deposits are very expensive to extract. There are promising technologies that may make the extraction of that oil cheaper and cleaner. However, what will that buy us? Another thirty years? What then? What happens when we run out of oil? What will our children and grand children do if we just keep ignoring that certain fact? One major factor we use in our daily life and consumes huge amount of gas is our way of transportation; “The United States, the biggest country in the world, consumes 19.6 million barrels per day of oil which is more than 25% of the world's total” (Jason J. Churchill). In order to stay competitive and productive, millions of drivers in cars and trucks are running and burning gas every day on our huge and long freeways as part of their jobs. Obviously, we need cars to survive and keep our lifestyle. However, we can use different kind of cars such as hybrid cars that do the job and save huge amount of oil as well. Basically, “ A hybrid electric vehicle combines an internal combustion engine and an electric motor powered by batteries, The combination allows the electric motor and batteries to help the conventional engine operate more efficiently, cutting down on fuel use” (Hybrids Under the Hood). The gasoline-fueled combustion engine overcomes the limited driving range of an electric vehicle. This hybridization gives us the ability to drive 500 miles or more using less fuel and never