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Oil is not naturally occurring on the surface of the earth. It can only be formed underground, it is extremely poisonous, it kills almost every living organism.

Oil is not naturally occurring on the surface of the earth. It can only be formed underground, it is extremely poisonous, it kills almost every living organism. You can say that deep underground oil is natural, but on the surface of the earth certainly not.

nitrogen 5y ago
Oil is not naturally occurring on the surface of the earth. If it didn't naturally seep out of the ground, humans never would have discovered it and started using it. See this comment thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28740261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28740261
- Maursault 5y ago
  This apparently popular argument of the form "hey, it's natural, so it doesn't matter! Hah, hypocritical environmentalists!" is utterly absurd, not only false equivalence, but a brain dead employment of an appeal to nature fallacy. That some amount of seepage is naturally occurring does not remotely excuse the obnoxious, mind-boggling amount of death to nature caused by oil spills due to the economic activity of humans. Every single year in the history of the oil industry there have been major spills. That's 162 years worth of major oil spills. Sure seepage is natural; oil spills are not.
WillPostForFood 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits It isn’t formed on the surface, but it is naturally occurring.
- Maursault 5y ago
  Are oil spills naturally occurring? Were the La Brea Tar Pits caused by an oil spill? [1] Is it morally permissible for an arsonist or an irresponsible camper to burn down the neighborhood and an entire forest with it because fire is natural? [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
userbinator 5y ago
it is extremely poisonous, it kills almost every living organism You may want to look up the history of the invention of petroleum jelly...

nitrogen 5y ago

Oil is not naturally occurring on the surface of the earth. If it didn't naturally seep out of the ground, humans never would have discovered it and started using it. See this comment thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28740261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28740261

Maursault 5y ago
This apparently popular argument of the form "hey, it's natural, so it doesn't matter! Hah, hypocritical environmentalists!" is utterly absurd, not only false equivalence, but a brain dead employment of an appeal to nature fallacy. That some amount of seepage is naturally occurring does not remotely excuse the obnoxious, mind-boggling amount of death to nature caused by oil spills due to the economic activity of humans. Every single year in the history of the oil industry there have been major spills. That's 162 years worth of major oil spills. Sure seepage is natural; oil spills are not.

WillPostForFood 5y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits It isn’t formed on the surface, but it is naturally occurring.

Maursault 5y ago
Are oil spills naturally occurring? Were the La Brea Tar Pits caused by an oil spill? [1] Is it morally permissible for an arsonist or an irresponsible camper to burn down the neighborhood and an entire forest with it because fire is natural? [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_equivalence [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

userbinator 5y ago

it is extremely poisonous, it kills almost every living organism You may want to look up the history of the invention of petroleum jelly...