Plastic in Our World: Day 5

Parents, this one is geared for you. With what is going on in the news recently, it seemed like a good opportunity to point out the connection between plastics in our lives and oil in the Gulf. Read the information and links, and share the ideas with your kids as you see fit.

There is one more way in which plastic affects our world and the creatures that live in it:

Okay, so that is not plastic. But it is natural oil, from which much of the world's plastic is made. It can be found deep under the ground, in enormous deposits. Oil has been an amazing resource for humankind for a long time, and is used for everything from fueling our cars and airplanes to making plastic. But when people dig to get the oil out, sometimes they make mistakes, and oil gets out into the natural world.








This article is one journalist's perspective of what it is like to be in the water with the oil, and helps the reader imagine what it would be like for the animals who live in the water.

This article gives an excellent overview of the details of an oil spill--and is clearly enough written that older (high school) kids will be able to follow it.

This article talks about all the kinds of things we use oil to make--a fascinating list!--and a few of the ways we can be wise about our dependence upon petroleum products.