1. Ethics of Petroleum Engineering
Conversation Friday
Friday 7/08/2016

2. Ethics of any engineer
We must always be striving to help the general public and the greater good
Never sacrifice safety for personal gain
Never cheat or take shortcuts

3. What must be looked at
Much of petroleum engineering can be debated whether it is “good” or “bad” by the public
Drilling for oil is altering the earth
We often use drilling and fracking fluids
Argued that fracking causes methane leaks into drinking water
Petroleum (Oil and Gas) are fossil fuels, that release greenhouse gases

4. What are greenhouse gases?
Gases that help trap heat from the sun inside our atmosphere
Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Water Vapor, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, and Chloroflourocarbons

5. So why not move on from oil?
We know that the amount of oil and gas we burn is changing our earth, so why not stop?
We currently don’t have the ability to
Wind and solar are fantastic, but not yet effective enough
Cars, trucking, shipping, and airplanes are almost fuy dependent on oil and natural gas
Most of the US power comes from natural Gas electricity plants

6. Are Petroleum Engineers against Climate change?
No! Most petroleum engineers are hopeful that as a species we can move on to a sustainable future
We hope to help improve the oil industry to help us get there
I work to help find ways to get more oil out of every well
Many petroleum engineers strive to help produce oil until we can come up with the solutions to replace it

7. What is climate change?
From our greenhouse gas production over the last few years, we have:
Increased the global temperature
This melts polar ice caps, raising sea levels and several other consequences, like weather pattern changes
Greatly increased the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere
This CO2 dissolves into the oceans, making it more acidic, which has changed ocean life

8. Ocean Acidification

9. When did We Learn about Climate Change?
Scientists have been aware of rising CO2 levels since the mid 70’s
Exxon did a full study of CO2 emissions levels, but tried to hide their results, fearing it could hurt the companies profits
The public was exposed to climate change through Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
[Trailer]
So where are we now?
[2016]
Let’s take a short break and come back

10. What must we do
To sustain our future on earth we have to get our CO2 emissions below the amount that the earth can filter out
Right now, the oceans have the ability to healthily recycle exactly the amount of CO2 that comes from air travel
This means that everything else, heating our homes, driving cars and trucks, shipping and cargo, and electricity generation must become free of CO2
Right now, we can produce about 10% of what we need from solar and wind

11. Shift to Exxon Slideshow

12. Let’s Look at our own emissions
Go to :
And see the different sources from emissions in your county, state or any region you are interested in.
What is the total reported emissions for your country?
Are there any plants nearby?
Look at the “trends”