What could happen to the Earth if we were to stop drilling for oil?
Drilling for oil has no real effect on the earth. Burning oil is probably not a good thing for the world’s climate, but that is another topic. Few people realize that more oil has been spilled on the surface of the planet over geologic history than man has ever pumped from underground reservoirs. Natural oil seeps are a part of the planetary carbon cycle and are as natural as the water cycle and rain. In some instances, drilling for oil and producing it actually reduces the amount of oil that seeps to the surface through natural seeps and results in a cleaner environment, because there are no seeps of methane or oil and tar to pollute the area. As an example of how common natural oil seeps are, just in the area of Santa Barbara Channel offshore California there are estimated to be more than 20,000 tonnes of oil per year leaking into the ocean from natural oil seeps. That’s about 151,600 barrels of oil, or 6,367,000 gallons of oil. See:
