A FREAK OF GEOLOGY The stuff we pump into our gas tanks is a
freak of geology, the product of a series of lucky breaks over
millions of years. --Tim Appenzeller Of Earth and Living Beings
Oil is not pretty. When it is taken from beneath the earth's
surface, it is called crude oil, or crude for short. Although
crude can be green, red, straw-colored, or chocolate brown, it
is usually black. Because it is so valuable, in the late 1800s
people in the industry nicknamed it "black gold." Since then, it
has made fortunes for the lucky few and provided jobs for
millions of ordinary folks. Thick and slippery, crude oil has an
evil smell, giving off vapors that make eyes water and throats
sore. Yet without it, life as we live it today would be
impossible. Oil fuels the engines that move us and our goods
from place to place. It heats our homes and powers the machines
that make the everyday things we take for granted. Thousands of
products, from drinking straws to plastic shopping bags, from
plant fertilizer to computers