Drilling anD Fracking Global Citizens ENVIRONMENTALISM
Chapter 1 History Fossil Fuels Environmentalism is a big word But its meaning is simple Practicing environmentalism means being a friend of Earth and all its creatures Environmentalists want to keep our air healthy our land clean and our water fresh They want to take care of our plants and animals by making sure our planet remains a safe place to live Some environmentalists focus on encouraging people to stop polluting Others encourage people to recycle One of the most important environmental jobs is to teach people the dangerous costs of drilling and fracking for oil and natural gas The Story of Fossil Fuels Earth has been around for 4 5 billion years About 350 million years ago tiny organisms died and sank to the bottom of
Fossil fuels were formed during the Paleozoic Era swamps around the world Over the next millions of years these organisms decomposed and transformed into petroleum The petroleum’s location determined its form gas natural gas or liquid oil The natural gas formed in deeper and hotter locations than the oil The gas and oil underneath Earth are called fossil fuels Today we use fossil fuels to run almost all our energy sources We use them to run our cars trains airplanes and even ships We also use them to cook and to heat and light our houses and buildings People have been drilling for oil as far back as the year 347
