How Coal Oil saved Sperm Whales from Extinction
It's true…. once upon a time coal oil saved a species such as the sperm whale from extinction. The nose oil from the sperm whale was truly prized as a wonder oil in the early 1800's and whales were very close to extinction as a result.
The demand for whale oil took a tremendous toll on whales, and some species were driven to the very brink of extinction. The right whale, one of the scarcer varieties, was killed in the early 1800s at a rate of about 15,000 per year. When the growing scarcity of this whale forced attention to other species, only about 50,000 right whales remained. Had demand for whale oil continued, extinction would have undoubtedly claimed several species.
But like coal oil back then, newer cleaner and healthier alternatives to oil itself have appeared on the horizon today. Battery Electric motors cannot entirely replace the need for oil just yet (although the motors themselves do not use oil) as there is still the need for lubrication but one has to also wonder as the demand for oil falls and prices increase in future if the synthetic oils won't also reach their own tipping point in the near future….
See http://www.sjvgeology.org/history/whales.html
 |
How the Oil Industry Saved the Whales How the Oil Industry Saved the Whales |