Oil is everywhere. It helps us travel. It helps us make things. But it causes lots of problems too.
Most of us use oil for a lot of things in our lives. We get that oil from deep under the surface of the Earth. We get it by drilling deep underground. We get it by drilling deep under seas and oceans. The oil that we get from digging is called crude oil.
Crude oil is oil that has not been refined. In order to make this oil useful, we need to take this oil to an oil refinery. The oil refinery changes the unrefined oil into refined oil that we can use.
We use refined oil to make petrol for cars. We use refined oil to make diesel fuel for trucks. We use refined oil to make jet fuel for airplanes.
Sadly, the oil industry can be very destructive. Oil rigs cause a lot of destruction to the natural land or water around them. Factories that refine oil cause a lot of destruction because they use so much energy.
Refining and using oil can be very bad for the environment. But sometimes, there can be accidents that are even worse.
Big oil tankers bring unrefined oil from the water to factories on land. Sometimes, these oil tankers can get into accidents. They can cause an oil spill. Oil spills cause big problems.
Oil spills kill animals that swim in the water. The oil in the water chokes the swimming animals because they cannot breathe through the oil.
Oil spills kill animals that fly near the water. The oil in the water drowns the flying animals because they cannot fly when their wings are oily.
Oil spills damage the beaches and landscape. When all the beaches and oceans are full of oil, no one will visit those places because they are too dirty.
Have you ever mixed water and oil? It is hard to remove oil from water. Oil is not soluble. That is what makes oil waterproof.
The oil cleanup costs a lot of money and takes a long time. It clogs the tools that are used to remove the oil. Most of the time, you can never really remove the oil.
Oil spills pollute our land and oceans. The damage from oil spills lasts a long time. It is not responsible to destroy our planet with oil. We have to be careful and respectful of nature. It is our responsibility to keep the Earth clean.