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Oil is not pretty, but it is a resource that drives the modern world. 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. Yet without it, life as we live it today would be impossible. Oil fuels our engines, heats our homes, and powers the machines that make the everyday things we take for granted, from shopping bags to computers to medical equipment. Nations throughout the last century have gone to war over it. Indeed, oil influences every aspect of modern life. It helps shape the history, society, politics, and economy of every nation on earth. This riveting new book explores what oil is and the role this precious resource has played in America and the world.
Oil is not pretty, but it is a resource that drives the modern world. 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. Yet without it, life as we live it today would be impossible. Oil fuels our engines, heats our homes, and powers the machines that make the everyday things we take for granted, from shopping bags to computers to medical equipment. Nations throughout the last century have gone to war over it. Indeed, oil influences every aspect of modern life. It helps shape the history, society, politics, and economy of every nation on earth. This riveting new book explores what oil is and the role this precious resource has played in America and the world.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
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 and medical equipment, begin as crude oil. So do most school backpacks, knee guards—even the yellow "rubber" duck floating in your bathtub. Modern weapons such as tanks, aircraft, and ships are so much metallic junk without oil products to make them run.
Oil influences every aspect of modern life. It has helped shape the history, society, politics, and economy of every nation on Earth. Nations have fought wars for black gold, and sadly, probably will do so in the future. Yet few who rely on this vital substance know much about it. What, exactly, is oil? How was it formed? When? Where?1
To understand oil, we must begin with a key rule of science: change alone is changeless. This may sound odd, but it is true. Nothing stays the same forever. Change governs everything in the universe, from distant galaxies, stars, and planets to tiny bacteria and giant whales—and us humans, too. Many changes in nature, such as the formation of mountains, happen too slowly for us to notice, unfolding over many lifetimes, even millions of years. When we do see rapid and sudden changes, they are usually bad for us. For example, the people of the Italian city of Pompeii had lived for generations in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, a dormant, or "sleeping," volcano. In the year AD 79, the sleeper awoke with an outburst of flame and fury. Within hours, it sent clouds of hot ash and gas to choke over 20,000 people, nearly all of Pompeii's residents.
Mountain ranges and volcanoes are features of the geology of the planet Earth. Geology is the science that studies the structure and history of the earth as recorded in the rocks. If you could slice deep into the earth, you would find that it is arranged in layers. Geologists—earth scientists—believe that the topmost layer of rock, or crust, is between four and forty miles thick. Earth's crust is like an eggshell broken into ten enormous slabs and numerous smaller ones. These slabs, called plates, float on a layer of partially molten rock called the mantle—that is, the layer of rock between Earth's crust and core.
Every continent and ocean floor rests atop one or more plates. Driven by heat currents from Earth's core, plates are always in motion, always changing position. Although the plates move slowly, just a few inches a year, their movements have shaped Earth's crust—and still do. Moving plates push against, slide past, and grind under one another. When two plates scrunch together, they trigger earthquakes that create volcanoes and mountain ranges such as the Rockies, Andes, and Himalayas.
Yet not even a mountain range can resist the force of flowing water. Water is invincible....
About the Author-
ALBERT MARRIN is the author of numerous highly regarded nonfiction books for young readers, including Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy, Years of Dust, and Sitting Bull and His World. His many honors include the Washington Children's Book Guild and Washington Post Non-Fiction Award for an "outstanding lifetime contribution that has enriched the field of children's literature," the James Madison Book Award for lifetime achievement, and the National Endowment for Humanities Medal awarded to him by President George W. Bush.
Reviews-
January 15, 2012 Opinionated, cogent perspectives on the role of fossil fuels in human history. Following a doubtless accurate claim that controlling the supply of oil and finding substitutes for the stuff "will shape much of the social, political, and military history of the twenty-first century," Marrin opens with a petro-centric tale of wars. These range from an Egyptian conflict in the 4th century BCE to the War on Terror ("really the war for oil in disguise," he suggests) and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He also reviews the course of the Industrial Revolution (noting that automobiles were initially welcomed as being "cleaner, healthier, and safer" than horses), then goes on to analyze the hazards of our oil dependence, recap major oil spills and consider both the benefits and dangers of alternative energy sources. Well-surveyed territory this all may be, but the author's beneficent portrait of John D. Rockefeller, his references to British "terrorism" in the Middle East and other heterodox views give it distinctive angles. Moreover, the urgency of his message that something has to change comes through clearly. Required reading on a topic that can only grow in importance to readers who will be living that "social, political, and military history." (endnotes, index, black-and-white photos) (Nonfiction. 11-14)
COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
April 1, 2012
Gr 8 Up-Marrin weaves chemical, historical, industrial, and military information together to create a cohesive explanation of something that has changed our world, for good or ill. The summary of oil's importance in modern military efforts from World War I onward is particularly enlightening. The detail regarding the chaotic and complex history of the modern Middle East is comprehensive but not overwhelming. The negative environmental impacts of oil extraction, transportation, and consumption are summarized and current, e.g., the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion/spill is included. Energy dependence in the developed world is outlined, as is the search for alternative fuels and renewable energy. The author strikes a hopeful tone when discussing renewable technologies but is realistic in relating the many obstacles to weaning our modern world from its insatiable thirst for more oil. Black-and-white charts, graphs, and reproductions bring immediacy to the text. Meticulously researched and noted, this volume will serve to introduce readers to the ticking time bomb of the depletion of fossil fuels. Marrin's dedication is "For today's young people, who will be confronted by the problem of black gold tomorrow." May his target audience read and heed his words. An extremely readable guide to a very important subject.-Lisa Crandall, formerly at Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2012 "Our country has 5 percent of the world's population but uses 26 percent of its energy." And most of that energy -- fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas -- is nonrenewable. Before Marrin discusses the current state of affairs, the somewhat bleak outlook for the future, and alternative sources of energy (nuclear, solar, wind, and water), he gives readers a geology primer on the formation of oil and a brief overview of oil in ancient times. But the narrative is most successful once it reaches the Industrial Revolution, when the discovery and refinement of oil leads to a cycle of greed, wealth, politics, and war that drives modern civilization throughout the twentieth century and into the present one, including the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. If the ambitious scope and disparate elements do not always cohere, and if the narrative is overstuffed with numbers and dates, Black Gold provokes readers with challenging insights and difficult questions, always eschewing simplistic explanations. Black-and-white photographs with accompanying captions illustrate the text, while notes, a glossary, and an index are appended. jonathan hunt
(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
July 1, 2012 Opening with a geology primer on the formation of oil and a brief overview of oil in ancient times, the narrative is most successful in describing the cycle of greed, wealth, politics, and war that drove modern civilization throughout the twentieth century and into the present. Marrin offers challenging insights and difficult questions that eschew simplistic explanations. Glos., ind.
(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
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Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
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