Literature Review

On Saturday 20^th April 2010, a British petroleum oil rig in Gulf of Mexico exploded causing a huge oil spill that would last for 9 day until the well was capped, 11 people died and 17 people were injured, it is know known as the largest oil spill recorded in history to date,  which poses the Question


‘Does the need for oil outweigh the risks to the people and environment around these oil rigs, or should we be looking towards using renewable energy sources as the oil reserves are eventually to run out anyway?’

Joss Garmann(2010), reported for the Independent newspaper after the huge oil spill and pleaded with the new Conservative  government to ‘’use the Gulf of Mexico crisis as an opportunity to end our addiction to oil and lead moves towards a new business model that is centred on clean energy’’      

 

However how clean is clean energy? It is believed that if we are move away from oil/ coal powered power stations, then we would need to replace these power stations with nuclear ones, as wind turbines, solar energy and other renewable sources would never be able to create the power alone that the world needs. 


Nuclear power comes with its own risks and same potential, or if not more damaging to the environment around us, with its nuclear wastes, and the consequences if anything was to go wrong like the Chernobyl nuclear accident on April 26^th, 1986, which BBC news reports to be ‘the world's worst civil nuclear disaster’.


So should we continue to mine every last drop of oil out of the planet, or should risk relying on nuclear energy to be our new main power source?


References
The Independant, 2010, deep water oil drilling [online] Available at <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/deepwater-oil-drilling-banned-in-america-allowed-here-1996227.html> [accesses 07 November 2010]
BBC news, N/A, 1986: soviets admit nuclear accident [online] Available at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/28/newsid_2500000/2500975.stm> [accessed 07 November 2010]