International Efforts

Wealthy nations such as the United States rely heavily on coal and oil. Severely dependent, 72% of the imported oil to the United States is from foreign countries. The top importers of crude oil and petroleum would include Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Iraq, Ecuador, Kuwait, United Kingdom, Brazil, Chad, Colombia, and Libya.

Russia holds 33% of proved recoverable resources. They supply most of continental Europe with gas. Pipelines are being built to take gas through the Balkans to Turkey via Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Greece. Plans to supply to Serbia and Albania are already underway. One of the most prominent agreements is between Russia and Turkey in the Blue Stream Project. A pipeline is to be built across the Black Sea, carrying a supply of gas.

In regions where fossil fuels are scarce such as developing third-world countries, manure is set outside to dry and later used for fuel in heating the homes or cooking. Because little energy is used in such places that have never seen the Industrial Age, biomass will most likely continue to be a main source of energy for years to come. The more industrialized world that has witnessed the uses of coal and oil has not turned back since.

Increasingly aware of their situation, the public has strived to pressure their government into finding alternative energy sources to replace that of fossil fuel. Many suggestions involve and consider the true needs of the human population. Clean air, clean water, and good health are the fundamental necessities of life. In drilling for oil and digging up fossil fuels, the environment is thrown out of balance and is damaged to the point where it is incapable of keeping up a good quality of air, water, or health. Until politics and huge corporations decide to change their ways and achieve better solutions in using natural resources, the hand of Mother Earth will continue to wither and die.