Question: why is crude oil so bad???????????????????

Helena Quilter answered on 17 Mar 2016:

Hi Fames! That’s a really good question, thank you!

Crude oil is what we call a fossil fuel – that’s a fuel that we dig out of the ground that took millions of years to make. We call them fossil fuels because they’re made out of things that lived many years ago and have broken down.

Crude oil is made out of carbon and hydrogen so when we burn it – which is how we use it to get energy or make it into other things – we make a gas called carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is responsible for climate change so if we use more crude oil we will speed up how much the planet warms up!

We also get some other pollution when we burn fossil fuels that can cause climate change or just make the air very dirty so now scientists like me are trying to find other things we can use to make fuels and materials of – like plants instead of oil!