The most obvious damage that vehicle over-reliance is causing is to the environment. Environmental experts are in agreement on the negative effects that excessive oil consumption is having on the environment. At the academic level, field research level and in all other environmental sciences, experts are warning world leaders and oil consumers of what earth’s future could look like if we do not drastically reduce our oil consumption. The root of the oil problem is greed. We discovered a way to make transportation easy and now we do not want to give it up. Instead, we want to control it, monopolize it and use it frivolously. This way of thinking has the potential to destroy the planet.

A heavy toll is being taken on earth’s atmosphere due to our excessive oil consumption. Both the process of excavating oil from the earth and the process of burning oil in its use are polluting. They create greenhouse gases and carbon emissions that enter earth’s atmosphere and alter it for the worse, heating it up, depleting its ozone and causing changes in weather patterns. Throughout human history until a century ago, humanity has not altered the delicate balance of the atmosphere’s composition, but since the dawn of the industrial revolution, we have had an enormous effect on it.

Earth’s crust is also in jeopardy. Oil serves as a layer of lubrication in the earth’s mantle. Oil fills enormous pockets of subterranean space and makes tectonic plates able to slide past one another without causing devastating earthquakes. When we extract oil from earth’s surface, we are creating imbalance within the earth’s crust. This makes geological disturbances, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and sinkholes, more likely. It is very important that humanity learns to control its addiction to oil before it no longer has the option of damage control.