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Oil fuels your world. That may mean problems for your future.

Oil is a black liquid that comes from inside Earth. Oil is in gasoline. That is the fuel that runs cars. Another kind of oil heats buildings.

Maybe you knew that. You also use oil in ways you might not have known about. Take skateboarding, for example. If you ride a skateboard, you use oil.

How? The wheels of the skateboard are made of plastic. Plastic is often made from oil. Your hard helmet comes from oil too. So do your kneepads. A sticky form of oil even paves the driveway you ride on.

Oil is a key natural resource. That is something useful found in nature. Why do we need oil so badly? Let's find out.

Oil comes from dead plants and animals. Their remains fell to the seafloor. Layers of remains piled up.

Sand and dirt covered the remains. Over time, the sand and dirt turned into rock. The rock pressed down. That turned the remains into oil. Some of the oil rose through holes in the ground. It showed up in puddles.

Ancient people discovered the puddles. They learned to burn oil in lamps. They also used tar, a sticky form of oil. They covered their homes with tar to keep water out. Over time, people learned to separate materials in oil by heating it. That is called refining. Refining makes oil useful in many ways. For example, we make gasoline that way.

Cars were invented in the late 1800s. Soon, many cars hit the road. More oil was needed to make gas for them.

Inventors then learned to make plastic from oil. We started making many plastic things, from forks to phones. We used up the oil that was easy to find. We had to drill deep into Earth to find more.

Getting enough oil has become a problem. So we look for oil in new places. Scientists have found oil trapped in sand. They have found rocks that hold oil. Getting oil from sand or rock costs a lot, however.

Finding oil is just the start of the problem. Drilling for oil can harm the land and sea. Ships carrying oil sometimes spill it. Burning oil puts unhealthy gases in the air. The gases sit in the sky. They make air trap heat. That causes global warming, a rise in temperature around the world.

To fix the problem, we can turn plants like corn into gas. Wind, sunlight, and ocean waves can help too. They can run machines so we use less oil.

You can help also. Practice energy conservation. That means using less power. Shut off TVs and computers when not in use. Turn down the heat when it is cold. Wear warm clothes instead. Saving power saves oil. That helps save the planet.

Article by Catherine Fox. Top-of-page photo by Peter Arnold. "Oil" appears on page 16 of the Jan.-Feb. 2008 issue.