What are facts about oils?

Answer 1

Many products that we use every

day-including gasoline, styrofoam,

and plastic-are made from oil. The

oil used to make these products

often comes from beneath the

ground in the rainforests. Removing

the oil from the ground, or drilling

for oil, is harmful to the rainforest. In

fact, drilling for oil is one of the main

causes of rainforest destruction

worldwide.

Oil, or petroleum, comes from

the fossils of dinosaurs and

plants that lived on Earth millions

of years ago. Oil is used to make

fuels, called fossil fuels, such as

gasoline. Oil is also used to

make plastic bags, bottles,

and cups, styrofoam, and

synthetic fabrics like

polyester and nylon.

Large oil companies drill for

oil on millions of acres of

rainforest. The companies then

sell the oil in order to make

money. There is nothing wrong

with making money, but when

companies destroy the

rainforests to make money they

destroy not only the forest, but

also the lives of the animals

and people who live there.

Oil drilling harms the

rainforests because lots of

trees are cut down to make

room for oil roads, oil

pipelines, and oil machinery. In

some places, people then move in

along the roads and cut down even

more trees. When these trees are

destroyed, all the animals that lived

in those trees are homeless.

Without their forest homes, these

animal species face extinction,

which means they could disappear

forever like the dinosaurs.

Another problem is that when

companies drill for oil the oil is

often spilled onto the soil and

into rivers. Indigenous peoples-

people whose families have lived

in the rainforest for thousands of

years-often become sick from

the pollution. Sometimes indigenous

peoples are even pushed

off of their lands, or

displaced, by oil projects.

Oil also creates air

pollution after it's

turned into gasoline.

Burning fossil fuels like

gasoline (by driving cars

and flying airplanes, for

example) makes our air dirty

and unhealthy to breathe.

Many people get sick from

breathing in too much of this

smog or dirty air.

Burning oil and gasoline

also makes the planet get

warmer and creates

climate change. This

RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK

221 Pine Street, Suite 500 • San Francisco, CA 94104 • Phone (415)398-4404 • Fax (415)398-2732

email: rainforest@ran.org • Web: www.ran.org

Student Fact Sheet 6

facts about oil

means that weather patterns around the

world start to change in dangerous ways.

Winters become colder, summers become

hotter, and storms become fiercer and more

frequent. These changes in climate are hard

on the forests. One third of the world's

forests are threatened by climate change.

Oil Is Not Necessary

Even though oil and oil products are

currently used to drive our cars, fly our

planes, operate our factories, and warm our

homes, we don't have to use oil for these

things. Instead, we can use renewable

sources of energy, like the sun and the wind.

Energy from the sun and the wind is called

renewable because it never runs out. Light

and heat from the sun can be used to make

solar power and windmills can be used to

capture the power of the wind. The sun and

the wind are great sources of energy

because they don't destroy the rainforests or

harm the planet.

We can also use things other than oil to

make plastic, such as corn. Corn can be

grown on farmland that has already been

cleared for other crops, so it does not hurt

the rainforests or the planet.

What Can We Do To Help?

Until our energy supply comes from

renewable energies like the sun and the

wind, many of us will need to use oil in our

daily lives. By reducing the amount of oil we

use, however, we can make a big difference

for the rain-forests. There are many ways

we can reduce the amount of oil we use.

First, instead of driving our cars, we can

walk, ride a bike, carpool, and take the bus,

train, or subway whenever possible.We can

also write to automobile companies and ask

them to make cars that run on alternative

fuels that do not come from oil.

Second, we can use energy from the

sun as much as possible.We can hang our

laundry outside to dry, warm up special bags

of water for fun solar showers, and ask our

parents to install solar heating panels.

Although solar panels may be expensive to

buy, over time they'll save a lot of money-

and they'll help save the rainforests!

Third, we can use less plastic by using

glass, ceramic, metal, and cloth instead.

Take a cloth bag with you to the market and

use it instead of a plastic grocery bag. Use a

glass or a ceramic mug to drink from instead

of plastic cups, and buy drinks in glass

bottles instead of plastic bottles. If you do

use plastic containers, make sure to reuse

them as much as possible before recycling

them.

The Forth thing you can do is write to

Ford Motor Company. Currently, Ford

vehicles account for approximately one

month of the United States' annual oil

consumption, an amount equal to the annual

oil consumption of Italy. A few years ago

Ford promised to make cars that use less

oil, but they have broken that promise.

Please write to Ford and ask them to make

cars that use cleaner technologies, like

hybrids and fuel cells.

Write to:

Mr.William Clay Ford, Jr.

Chairman and CEO, Ford

Motor Company

The American Road

Dearborn, MI 48120

revised 2/04

Student Fact Sheet 6

2

Answer 2

Some facts about oil are easily stick on skin of humans, higher boiling point than water and flow smoothly.