We start at the beginning because the beginning is always a good place to start. So, too, does the rise of one company above all others ring true, for the modern corporation has always gravitated towards monopoly and cartel and, with this, the tendency to overlook the common weal as a matter of standard operating procedure, no pun intended.
Petroleum is one of the three fossil fuels coal and natural gas being the other two formed during the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era, which ran from about to million years ago. When tree and plant life died, their remains decomposed. Undisturbed for countless millennia, the ancient flora became peat. The petroleum industry, one of the most colossal enterprises the world has ever known, began gathering speed midway through the 19 th century.
From there, it would become one of the most momentous economic and environmental forces in the history of humankind. Few realize today that the Mesopotamians were enthusiastic consumers of the stuff 5, years earlier, back in the cradle of civilization days.
Sometime before 3, BC, the Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians used petroleum that seeped from the earth in a related form, asphaltic bitumen. Think LaBrea tar pits.
The Dead Sea, near modern Israel, was once known as Lake Asphaltites, on account of the asphaltic oil deposits that would wash up on its shores , where they would be harvested for commercial use. A basic element of the Mesopotamian economies, asphalt was employed to build roads, to waterproof ships, and work as a mastic in construction. It was also as a component ingredient in paints, medicines, and what we now call beauty care products.
Given the way things seem to have gone with oil since then, some might say we should be thankful for the Persian conquest of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, c.
In the centuries that followed, most awareness of petroleum evaporated from the western world. This effective informational blackout assured at least a good two millenia before the West unleashed its last century and a half of intensive petroleum burning and virulent oil-related pollution. History tells us ancient Greece largely avoided the topic of oil, while the Romans viewed it as a matter of mild curiosity.
In the days of the horse-drawn carriage, gasoline was considered waste and was immediately discarded. In the s, oil, which was dug up from beneath the ground, was collected to produce kerosene for lighting lamps. When making kerosene, gasoline was also produced. However, because gasoline had no use at that time it was thrown in the trash.
Upon the invention of the automobile in , gasoline was discovered as a useful fuel source for the new vehicles. The higher the octane number, the more resistant the gasoline mixture is to knock. Doing so would increase vehicle efficiency and lower greenhouse gases through decreased petroleum consumption.
In the early 20th century, automotive manufacturers were searching for a chemical that would reduce engine knock. In , automotive engineers working for General Motors discovered that tetraethyl lead better known as lead provided octane to gasoline, preventing engine knock.
While aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene and alcohols such as ethanol were also known octane providers at the time, lead was the preferred choice due to its lower production cost. Leaded gasoline was the predominant fuel type in the United States until the U. Environmental Protection Agency EPA began phasing it out in the mids because of proven serious health impacts. Early in its use as a fuel additive, health concerns were raised regarding the use of lead in gasoline.
In , 15 refinery workers in New Jersey and Ohio died of suspected lead poisoning. As a result, the Surgeon General temporarily suspended the production of leaded gasoline and convened a panel to investigate the potential dangers of lead use in gasoline. Despite these warnings, the Surgeon General set a voluntary standard of lead content, which the refining industry successfully met for decades.
It was not until the s, following extensive health research, that the devastating health impacts of low-level lead exposure were established. The health impacts of lead exposure in children include anemia, behavioral disorders, low IQ, reading and learning disabilities, and nerve damage.
In adults, lead exposure is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Prior to the lead phase-out in gasoline, the total amount of lead used in gasoline was over , tons per year. Congress passed the Clean Air Act in , setting in motion the formation of the EPA and, ultimately, the removal of lead from gasoline. EPA estimates that between and , 68 million children were exposed to toxic levels of lead from leaded gasoline alone. The phase-out of lead from gasoline subsequently reduced the number of children with toxic levels of lead in their blood by 2 million individuals a year between and The EPA is formed and given the authority to regulate compounds that endanger human health.
Lead damages the catalytic converters used in these new vehicles to control tailpipe emissions. Catalytic converters are still used in vehicles today. Lead is still used in some aviation fuels. Thanks to coordinated efforts, lead is now absent from gasoline in most of the world. Energy and the environment. Also in What is energy?
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