The long-term effects of the use of natural resourcesDid you know that oil may no longer be available by 2050? This is due to overconsumption spread over hundreds of years. How much oil do you plan to use per year? The average American household uses 3 to 4 gallons of oil per day, or 1,277 gallons of oil per year! The long-term effects of the use of natural resources are global warming, pollution of waterways and also oil depletion. Global warming may lead to the end of life as we know it. Global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which releases a gas called carbon dioxide. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, projects a temperature increase of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century” ( INTERNATIONAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE). Global warming is not something we can ignore: it affects almost everything on earth. Global warming is also leading to the extinction of not only humanity but also other species. “The effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise, and longer and more intense heat waves” (IPOCC). The effects of burning fossil fuels over hundreds of years are finally catching up with us and forcing us to make drastic changes or face harsh living conditions and perhaps even extinction. The burning of fossil flues has had a major impact on the daily lives of almost all living things. Global warming is...... middle of paper...... elf but to Mother Earth. We must swear to never flood the earth with artificial products that cannot be decomposed. We must also commit to ending or at least limiting our use and consumption of oil, coal and water. Oil companies simply make society guess at peak oil, that is, how much oil is left. There are not an infinite number of mountains to mine and blow up to extract valuable coal. Only 1% of all water is safe to drink without treatment, indicating that more than a million people already face water problems and that number will only increase if nothing changes. Change must come; if nothing changes, humans will not thrive in another century, humans may not exist in another century if we continue to consume and pollute Earth's natural resources..