Exponential improvement in an economy entails an exponential need and demand for oil. This is current situation with China, according to an article of the Wall Street Journal, since late 2008, demand for oil had risen dramatically. As a result Petrochina, one of the largest oil companies in China, enjoyed 5.21 billion increase in profit just in the past year. The high demand for oil, and thus the increase level of profit, is attributed to the allocation of Chinese government stimulus spending to “energy-intensive” endeavors. As a result of this high demand, the oil company raised its crude-oil production by 1.3% and the average selling price rose by 46%. China is now the world’s largest energy consumer, following the United States, and, according to recent statistics, accounts for 40% of the increase in the global oil demand this year.
Let us follow the chain of events: improving economy means higher energy demand or higher energy consumption (people have more money to spend on electronic appliance and other things of that sort)which means more oil production(because oil companies must rise to meet the level of demand), until of course, all our oil is gone. As I said in my last blog-we keep forgetting that oil is a finite resource.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578103834060866.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines
This is a great post as it makes us realize that progess is good but it has a price. We must realize our impart on the environment and this article helps to do so.
ReplyDeleteRyan Parker
I think it's interesting that China can be involved in evaluating our own energy usage and need for oil. The U.S. uses China to compare itself too in many aspects of economics now, considering it's huge impact on business techniques.
ReplyDelete- Caitlin McGonnigal