Where Does Oil Come From? And How Do We Use It?
Oil is something that can harm anything on this planet. It can harm animals, human beings and the natural resources like water and air. Etc. However scientist believe that oil is made out of the remains of long and dead living things. The majority of petroleum which is a substance of oil is thought to come from the fossils of plants and tiny marine living animals and larger animals might contribute to the mix as well. The animals remain sunk to the bottom of the of oceans, riverbeds or swamps, mixing with mud and sand. Then eventually more sediment piles and piles which creates heat and pressure. This process transforms the organic layer into a dark and waxy substance called kerogen. When that step is done the kerogen molecules crack into shorter and lighter molecules composed eventually to carbon and hydrogen atoms. Depending on whether the substance is liquid or gaseous this mixture can be natural gas or either petroleum which is a substance of oil.
There are various forms of oil like palm oil or vegetable oil however we still use oil it is very important to us because we use in various forms and we don’t even realize it like for gas (bio-diesel), to cook food, lipstick, detergent, shampoo and lawnmowers etc. Not only its important to us nationally but globally as well. With oil we can sell it globally as well and this is the reason why the government uses it a lot because the oil money is raising internationally.
Mining Oil Hurts Us All!!
Mining oil can cause many damage to any living thing on this planet. For example it disturbs the wildlife migration routes (so if they wanna migrate somewhere else the fences can disturb their migrating) and habitats from noise pollution. Such as when they make roads to get to their oil site it can cause a lot of noise pollution to wild lands. And with these noises happening many mammals like bird are disturbed when there is songbird communication in breeding and seasons nesting seasons. And mammals are also more vulnerable to road kill because there are so much roads being built. The oil spills in the Gulf Of Mexico in 2010 many marine animals inhaled or ingested the toxic oil which occurred many side effects like:
- Damage To their liver, kidney, spleen or brain
- Caused many disease like cancer, immune system suppression and reproductive
However, to cause much destruction they must first find many skilled workers who are ready to mine oil from the land which also causes many environmental destruction. Such as before digging up all that oil they must build well pads and roads so when the bulldozer, road graders and gravel trucks come they can handle the weight and they don’t sink in the land. But this as well causes many destruction to the environment like:
- Strip the environment from vegetation
- Increase erosion which can lead to landslides, flooding and also weed infestation
- Disturbs the land as well as anyone living on it
Mining oil does not affect the environment and animals but the humans as well. We drink water to survive but when there are lagoons, open pits and ponds around the mining are they are affected because of pipeline explosions it can cause drinking water problems. Because oil is a complicated mixture with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of chemicals. And if we drink that water that is being contaminated the water we drink goes inside our body and cause lots of disease like cancer and make us very sick and their is a chance of us dying if we drink that water. So to prevent this of happening the workers should not even build pipelines. When they need to mine oil they can take the oil straight from the ground instead of making pipelines. Because if they do build pipelines lot's of bad things can happen for example, an underground pipelines blew up in Moscow river. No one knows what caused the blaze but according to rescue workers, the river went up in flames. However, it does not only affect the water but the air as well. When they create gas wells they release into the air methane and myriad toxic gases into the atmosphere. Unbelievably, oil can also cause problems globally. Like climate change. Methane which gets released into the air and is a substance of gas is 84 times harmful than carbon dioxide.
Oil Is Death! So We Need To Use Less Of It!
Oil is the worst thing that happened to the world. But to save us humans, the world and the animals we need to use less of it so it does not effect us or the environment that we live on. The first thing we can do is that we can start of with the basics we can carpool, cycle or use public transport to go to work or school. Second, when it is possible use products packaged without plastic and recycle or re-use containers. Third, buy organic fruits and vegetables (fertilizers and pesticides are based on oil more often) Third, buy beauty products (shampoo, soap, make-up) based on natural ingredients, not oil. It's also better for you skin. Their is so much we can do to use less oil and cause so much destruction. And this good deed will also effect the environmental impact of extracting of oil because we won't be needing oil as much so we won't need more and more of it.
In the graph below it is showing us how the oil sands have a growth and how they are very popular so there is a chance of increasing of environmental impacts which is sad and very bad for every living thing on this planet. So we should really consider walking our biking to work/school to stop the increasing of needing oil.
Credits:
Created with images by chefranden - "Oil Sand Tankers"