What’s So Bad About Gasoline

What’s So Bad About Gasoline

We go to the gas station and fill up the tanks of our cars, and we're ready to go. Anywhere, everywhere! In big cars, small cars-all kinds of cars. Gasoline is what makes cars go.

What is gasoline, anyway? Gasoline is a kind of fuel. When it's burned, it gives engines power. But carbon dioxide, other gases, and small particles of ash go into the atmosphere as the fuel burns. These are called emissions. Carbon dioxide is a gas that traps heat above the earth's atmosphere. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes the earth warmer than it should be. We call this global warming. Every year more and more people all over the world drive cars. And every year the earth grows warmer.

Gasoline is made from petroleum, which is a fossil fuel. Fossils are what remain of plants and animals that lived millions or billions of years ago. Maybe you've seen some in stone. You can't see the ones that make petroleum, for they are too tiny, but they are there. Long ago, tiny plants and animals lived in oceans that covered much of the earth. When these plants and animals died, they drifted down to the ocean floor. As millions of years passed, they became covered with sand. As more time passed, the sand turned to rock.

The decaying matter from the tiny plants and animals was trapped beneath the rock. This trapped decaying matter changed into petroleum. Some of the oceans dried up and left huge petroleum deposits deep underground. Some petroleum remained under the water of the ocean. These deposits under land or sea are where we get petroleum, or crude oil, to make gasoline.

People knew about petroleum long ago. There is more in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world. In the sandy deserts of those lands, people sometimes found sand that was moist and oily. Petroleum had seeped up through the ground. They used this oily material to waterproof boats, to preserve mummies, or to rub on their dry skin. They never tried to dig up more because they didn't need to. They didn't use much. Petroleum is still used today to make skin lotions.