Humans can expose the environment to massive
quantities of oil in events like wellhead leaks, ruptured
pipelines, and oil tanker groundings. These accidental
oil releases can have devastating impacts to the
surrounding environment. No two oil spills are exactly
the same, and the composition of the spilled crude oil
as well as the circumstances of the spill may impact
how the spill is cleaned up by responders.

Oil naturally escapes from the earth in deep ocean
seeps and in areas on land where earthquakes are
prevalent. Nearly half the oil in the ocean comes from
natural oil seeps. Seeps are slow and gradually release
oil which locally provides food to organisms adapted to
using oil components, especially bacteria.

Oil is used to power industry. Cars, planes, and homes
are powered by fuels refined from oil and when the
fuels are burned it releases carbon dioxide, a
greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. It is this carbon
dioxide that builds in the atmosphere and acts like a
blanket, trapping heat around the earth and warming
the planet. Once burned, carbon dioxide remains in
the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

Oil is used to produce many different substances
beyond just fuels and many of those products can be
found within the home. This includes plastic products,
paint, the asphalt in driveways, and the shingles
covering home roofs.