Are all petroleum oils a result of decaying plants and animals?
464166
Yep.  Fossil fuels burn because they have carbon and organic substances in them.  Carbon = organic life; thus all petroleum must be derived from living substances.  Sure, other things burn that are not derived from living things; but not petroleum.
708840
What is your question?? Dead sea life as in stuff that has been happening for 3 billion years? The process is called decomposition. Dead animals and plant decompose and become detritis. Eventually plants become oil or coal with time and heat. \n\nTen Years from now? What the hell do you mean by that?
1183930
~I assume somewhere in this drivel you actually think you posted a question.  Sorry I was to ignorant to figure out what it was.  Maybe you should consider going back to school to learn how to speak and write in intelligible English.  As to to concept of oil being a renewable resource, of course it is.  It just might take a few million years for the ferns to grow, decompose and transmogrify.  What the hey, Sequoias are renewable too.
582820
have already discussed the many toxic effects of the unsaturated oils, and I have frequently mentioned that coconut oil doesn't have those toxic effects, though it does contain a small amount of the unsaturated oils. \n\nMany people have asked me to write something on coconut oil. I thought I might write a small book on it, but I realize that there are no suitable channels for distributing such a book -- if the seed-oil industry can eliminate major corporate food products that have used coconut oil for a hundred years, they certainly have the power to prevent dealers from selling a book that would affect their market more seriously. For the present, I will just outline some of the virtues of coconut oil.
509398
Um...it could be bad. I wouldn't worry so much about animals and stuff; I'd be more concerned about microorganisms. They say that if you were to take out ALL of the microscopic life from underground and pile it on the surface of the planet, we'd have at least three feet of muck everywhere. That's a LOT of life! That's a LOT of living stuff to be farting! Now add that with all of the trillions of insects and other crawly thing, and add all of the animals and people and plants (can plants fart, I wonder? They're LIVING so I guess they're included in this question)...it would be one massive outpouring of methane. Might create a pretty foul odor for a long time.
400506
"Crude oil" as it comes out of the ground gets refined (basically distilled) into many different components.  The major ones are methane (natural gas), naptha, gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricating oils, heavy oils, and residual solids.  The farther down that list, the darker the color.\n\nMany of the residual solids end up in products such as tar and asphalt.  That's where all the "black stuff" goes.
764798
Did the oil companies destroy the environment?  Really?  The environment is destroyed?  Have you been to eastern Europe?  I have, and let me tell you, our environment is not even close to being destroyed.  The environments over there are WAY worse off than they are here, and guess what?  All that destruction was done by their governments under communism (not by 'greedy' companies)!  And who do you think is driving the oil industry anyway?  Everyone who buys fuel, or anything made out of plastic or other oil products, or buys something shipped with oil burning methods is driving it.  You need to learn some basic economics and think about things holistically to see the real forces that drive things.  Good luck with that.\nOur judicial system will never be cleaned up as long as it has so much power.  It is a law of nature that power attracts the corrupt.  If you want a judicial system that is corruption free, you need to drastically reduce its power over the people.  Most people look at government and its branches as a benevolent big brother rather than the necessary evil that great men like Ben Franklin and Jefferson did.  The bigger and more powerful it gets, the more corrupt it will get, period.
434376
Economic development doesnt preclude, infact it may very soon require, technological forrays into alternative energy production.  A current trend in the commercial sector is that consumers and investors are favoring environmentally friendly corporations.  Therefore, by the economic law of supply and demand, those corporations that avoid environmentally deleterious policies, such as relying on crude oil, will prosper, since they are 'supplying' environmental responsibility, for which demand is currently soaring.  It is shortsightedly immature of us to not move off crude oil quicker, infact.  We underestimate the damage oil does to the health of the worldwide human population, in terms of military repurcussions, adverse health effects, and of course, the environmental consequences.
359246
The dry it up with special materials.  Also, they have been know to vacuum it up.  Additionally, I have seen them using bulldozers and scooping the contaminated sand up and replacing it with new sand.  They try and wash the oil off all of the animals that were unlucky enough to get caught up in the spill.
436932
First guess: Oil (assuming an oil spill) might coat plant surfaces restricting photo synthesis.
1136335
http://www.ioga.com/Special/crudeoil_Hist.htm\nThat should help.
571568
oil is not a sustainable resource, so it will not last forever. \n\nSustainable resources, like sustainable agriculture, and sustainable development is  a way that we can configure human development a society in such a way that it does not compromise the need of future inhabitants of earth, this includes not just your children, by your childrens children and so on. I have included a link on sustainability it is packed with information and tons of resources to learn more about why it's essential to our existence. People are getting together everyday in this country (and with other countries) and around the world to create and improve sustainability.
818188
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/infosheets/petroleumproducts.htm
599698
Try using a pro-biotic product. The bacteria in the product digests waste. They use this in commercial ponds for cleaning before restocking, and also in oil spills, because it can digest petrol. Ask your local house and garden supplies shop, or if you live near farms ask them.
864225
As other people have pointed out, the oil is converted into combustion products (carbon dioxide, water, and assorted partial combustion products), all of which stick around in the atmosphere and therefore remain part of the Earth's mass. The energy comes from the binding energy of the hydrocarbon molecules. There is some mass associated with this energy, but it's minuscule.\n\nSecondly, even if the mass all that oil were destroyed, the change in Earth's overall mass would be insignificant.
313036
Pseudomonas sp have been documented in the 40s.  Generally they just use 'soil bacteria', as many gram negative bacteria can adobt to feeding off petroleum as a food source.
1031897
the second one because oil is created by decomposed organisms which means there would have had to have been lots of life, hence a warmer climate.