User:Mterr2

Climate change [edit]
Main article: Attribution of recent climate change

The emissions from the extraction, refinement, transportation, and consumption of petroleum have caused changes in our environment's natural greenhouse gas levels, most significantly our carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that attracts heat in order to keep our planet's temperature from below freezing but the excess amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere from things like the petroleum industry have caused an imbalance. Swedish Nobel chemist Svante Arrhenius created a mathematical model that showed an increase of carbon dioxide results in an increase in surface temperature. Furthermore, these emissions are at a record high and the IPCC (2007) states that earth's climate system will heat up by 3 degrees Celsius for a doubling of carbon dioxide. These numbers are troubling as the resulting climate change will cause more intense hurricanes and storms, increased droughts and heat waves, frequent flooding, and more severe wildfires.

Ocean acidification [edit]
Main article: Ocean acidification

Following the carbon cycle, carbon dioxide enters our oceans where it reacts with the water molecules and produces a substance called carbonic acid. This increase in carbonic acid had dropped the pH of our oceans, causing increased acidity. Since the Industrial Revolution, the start of the petroleum industry, the pH of our oceans have dropped from 8.21 to 8.10. It may not seem like much but this change shows a 30% increase in acidity which has caused a lot of problems for our sea life. As our oceans continue to acidify there are less carbonate ions available for calcifying meaning that organisms have a hard time building and maintaining their shells and skeletons. Based off of our current levels of carbon dioxide our oceans could have a pH level of 7.8 by the end of this century.