HOW WE USE OIL
Known as ‘black gold’, oil’s versatility has fuelled progress – and problems
Words by Andy Extance
© Getty
Oil shapes the modern world, giving humans enormous power, but creating massive environmental problems too. It’s strange to think, but much of the furniture we sit on and fill our homes with and everything else plastic that surrounds us owes its existence to oil. Likewise, burning oil and using its energy is still what lets most of us travel nearly anywhere we want.