How does petroleum affect the environment?
is an oil product that people mine for and sell at high prices. We saw that with the rise and fall of the gas prices. It provides for gas for our cars and other uses of energy. It can be very harmful to the environment however. It is also finite which means it’s a non-renewable resource. That means we will run out of it sometime because it takes so long to replenish it. Recently in government, an issue has been whether or not to drill for oil on a wildlife preserve in Alaska. The drilling of oil can pollute bodies of water and kill fish. It can effect entire food chains by just getting rid of one species. However oil is very expensive and valuable. In the not-too-distant past countries tried to get ahold of oil-rich Kuwait. As I said before, Alaska also has oil. It’s important though, that we don’t rely on oil too much or we’ll run out without a source to replace it.