How Oil Drilling and Spills Affect Earth

Oil drilling is the process of making deep holes in the ground or ocean floor to remove oil trapped in rocks below Earth's surface. People use oil to make gasoline for cars, heat homes, and create plastics. Oil drilling matters because while it provides energy we use every day, it can seriously damage the environment where plants and animals live.

When companies drill for oil on land, they must clear forests and grasslands to build roads and drilling equipment. This destroys habitats—the natural homes where animals find food, water, and shelter. The drilling process also releases chemicals into the soil that can poison plants and contaminate drinking water for nearby communities.

Drilling in the ocean creates even more problems. Offshore drilling platforms are giant structures built in the sea to reach oil beneath the ocean floor. These platforms can leak small amounts of oil every day, harming fish, dolphins, and other marine life—animals and plants that live in the ocean. The noise from drilling also confuses whales and dolphins that use sound to communicate and find food, like trying to have a conversation in a room with a loud jackhammer running constantly.

Sometimes drilling accidents cause oil spills, when large amounts of oil leak into the ocean. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico released about 200 million gallons of oil into the water. Oil floats on water and forms a thick black layer that blocks sunlight from reaching underwater plants. Birds that land on the water get covered in oil, which destroys the natural oils in their feathers that keep them warm and help them float. Sea turtles, fish, and other animals swallow the oil, making them sick or killing them.

Cleaning up oil spills is extremely difficult and expensive. Workers use special boats with floating barriers called booms to surround the oil and keep it from spreading. They also use chemicals that break oil into smaller drops, but these chemicals can harm marine life too. Even after cleanup efforts, oil can remain on beaches and in the ocean for years, continuing to damage ecosystems.

Interesting Fact: Some bacteria naturally eat oil and help clean up spills, but they work very slowly—it can take decades for them to break down all the oil from a major spill!