Climate Action
How Oil Got Us Hooked
August 27, 2025
The renewable energy transition is building. Renewables, especially solar and wind, are rapidly outpacing fossil fuels as energy sources; in 2024, clean power generated over 40% of all global electricity. In the U.S., solar accounted for 69% of new electricity added in early 2025, and despite a hostile US Administration, solar installations are still projected to add nearly 43 gigawatts annually on average through 2030.
Still, oil is everywhere: it makes the fuel that powers more than 75% of our vehicles globally. Fossil fuels comprise almost 60% of the electricity that powers our homes. A cocktail of toxic petrochemicals wraps our foods and makes our polyester clothes, our carpets and vinyl flooring. Plastics and other petroleum products make our toiletries silky and fragrant, stick our teabags together, and even make their way into the fish we eat. We cannot escape it.
For years we have been fed the lie that only fossil fuels can power the planet, that is not true. By the 2030’s, the largest source of electricity generation on the planet will be solar power.
Denis Hayes, First Earth Day Organizer, Board Chair Emeritus of EARTHDAY.ORG
On August 27, the fossil fuel industry, the same industry that has for decades relentlessly denied their role in driving climate change, wants everyone in the U.S to mark National Petroleum Day to celebrate all things oil. Instead, we want to remind ourselves of how we all became so addicted to this planet destroying substance.
So, What Is Petroleum?
Usually, when people say “petroleum,” they are referring specifically to crude oil, the unprocessed liquid hydrocarbons that can be turned into fuel.
But petroleum can also take a gaseous form, which the industry calls ‘natural’ gas and a solid form, known as coal. Oil, gas, and coal are all forms of fossil fuels — hydrocarbons formed from the decayed fossils of dead plants and animals. As of 2025, global oil reserves are estimated at several hundred billion barrels, with the top three reserves equalling 303 billion barrels in Venezuela, 267 billion barrels in Saudi Arabia and 209 billion barrels in Iran. All that oil may last us less than 50 years.
We need people power to support the big switch to renewable energy. We encourage everyone to talk to your local mayor, boss, neighbors, community leaders, and local and national legislators, to explore and to champion switching to renewables. We need to leave oil behind.
Kathleen Rogers, President, EARTHDAY.ORG
But while that seems to be far in the future, it is 100% true that fossil fuels are finite and therefore non-renewable, meaning that once they are used, they are gone. We cannot make oil, gas, or coal and we will eventually — some would say thankfully — run out of them all.
A Short History of Humans and Oil
Humans have used petroleum for thousands of years. As early as 4000 BC, ancient Babylonians and Egyptians were using petroleum products for caulking and adhesives. 2000 years ago, oil and gas were being burned for heat and light in China. Indigenous Americans, too, found uses for oil — including as medicine.
In the mid nineteenth century, most indoor lighting relied on expensive whale oil lamps, but many were on the lookout for cheaper alternatives. Petroleum could be turned into kerosene to fuel lamps much more cheaply. On August 27, 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, kicking off a major oil rush in the United States.
More than illumination, it was transportation that cemented petroleum as the dominant form of energy in the U.S. and, later, across the world. In 1908, the Model T Ford — a car that “anyone” could afford — was created. Running on gasoline instead of kerosene, the Model T sent demand for petroleum skyrocketing. By 1927, there was one automobile for every five Americans.
World Domination
Oil was a major part of the global economy, but the World Wars cemented its central status. In the first World War, vehicles like ships and trucks were powered by oil, making it crucial to victory. This was even more true for World War II, when planes and tanks abounded.
The role of the two world wars in shaping the emergence of the age of oil in the culmination of the first deep transition can be summarised as follows: the exceptional conditions of total war saw the imperative to use oil being accentuated in multiple sociotechnical systems … Thus, the two world wars were decisive in shaping the directionality of the culmination of the first deep transition.
Phil Johnstone and Caitriona McLeish, Energy Research & Social Science
World War II saw global oil production increase almost 20% — from 3,419 terawatt-hours in 1940 to 4,093 in 1945. Terawatt-hours measure oil by its energy rather than its volume. Since then, petroleum production has grown nearly thirteen times bigger, yielding up to 52,147 terawatt-hours in 2019.
Because of the growing carbon emissions associated with increased use of petroleum and other fossil fuels, atmospheric carbon dioxide is rising faster than ever before, up to 426 parts per million from 315 in 1959. This has driven a rise in global temperatures of 2.32 Fahrenheit (1.29 degrees Celsius) over the last century.
The U.S is one of the primary drivers of this rise in global temperature, behind only China, because carbon dioxide makes up nearly 80% of US greenhouse gas emissions, and about 93% of that CO2 comes from fossil fuel combustion. The largest emitting sectors are transportation (39% of CO2 emissions) and electric power generation (31%), which together form a major part of US emissions.
FACT: And while non-scientist Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will repeat until he’s blue in the face that trees need carbon dioxide, the last thing the world’s forests need is more CO2. It is true that trees need CO2, but our forests and trees cannot keep up with the excessive amounts produced by fossil fuel burning. Scientific studies show that, in fact, many forest ecosystems are becoming less efficient at absorbing CO2, because of lack of nutrients and soil moisture.
Threatening our Future
While great strides are being made in the field of renewable energy, looming threats put the planet at even greater risk. At the most critical time for us to cut emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is instituting deregulation to achieve the opposite, including proposing removing its ability to regulate fossil fuels under the Clean Air Act.
On July 29th, the EPA’s 17th administrator Lee Zeldin proposed rescinding the Endangerment Finding — the E.P.A’s 2009 scientific determination that greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, pose a threat to public health.
The Endangerment Finding gives the E.P.A legal authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions from vehicles, power plants, and other sources contributing to climate change. Repealing it would remove the foundation for most federal climate regulations, allowing increased greenhouse gas pollution with severe consequences for public health. Zeldin is effectively the one leading the charge to undermine ‘his’ own Agency making him the perfect person to lead what should be called the Environmental Pollution Agency.
At the same time, centers for generative AI models like ChatGPT, Grok, and Copilot are creating a huge demand for energy. Even for people who don’t directly use AI text and image generation, AI-assisted internet searches use up to 30 times more energy than normal searches.
This increased energy demand could be addressed by using renewable energy or reduced by limiting AI pervasiveness. Instead the U.S. administration made calls last month to meet energy needs in Pennsylvania with more coal and petroleum power.
Change Is Coming
But while the US is looking to 19th century solutions to 21st century needs, the rest of the world is leaving fossil fuel behind with record investments totaling $2 trillion in 2024, almost doubling investment in fossil fuels. Wind and solar dominate this growth, projected to make up 37 to 74% of world electricity generation by 2050 under various scenarios. The global renewable energy market size is forecast to exceed over a trillion US dollars in 2025, growing at nearly 7% annually.
FACT: Global renewable electricity generation is expected to increase by over 1,200 terawatt-hours in 2025 — a growth rate that outpaces total electricity consumption increases worldwide. This surge is largely driven by China, India, and other developing countries, which account for about 85% of the demand growth. Many countries in Africa and Asia are also rapidly adopting solar and wind as cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels.
Solar panel costs dropped tenfold from 2010 to 2020. Rural U.S. cities are concentrating resources on renewables. Countries like Uruguay, Australia, and even China are moving to renewable energy. Thanks to these efforts and more, we finally have a real chance to wean the world off fossil fuels. That is why EARTHDAY.ORG’s 2025 theme for Earth Day, Our Power, Our Planet, calls for a tripling of global renewable energy by 2030.
This National Petroleum Day, sign our petition to call on world leaders to commit to renewable energy. Also, if you care about the environment, and are in the U.S., we need your voice. Add your name to our public comments on the EPA’s intentions to gut the agency’s ability to regulate pollution due to climate change, also known as the Endangerment Finding.
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