ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

The Petroleum Papers

Petroleum is a type of material that we get from the ground called a fossil fuel. It is used to make lots of different things like gasoline for cars and trucks, plastic for toys and other objects, and even some kinds of medicine.

The petroleum papers are a collection of secret documents that were leaked to the public. These papers show how some big companies that make petroleum products have known for many years that burning fossil fuels like petroleum can cause problems for the environment and for people's health.

Basically, when we burn fossil fuels like petroleum, it releases things called greenhouse gases into the air. These gases can build up and cause problems like climate change, which can make the Earth's temperatures get hotter and cause things like floods and droughts.

The petroleum papers show that these big companies knew that burning fossil fuels was causing these problems for many years, but they didn't want people to know about it because they make a lot of money selling these products. That's not very nice, because it means that they weren't being honest with us about the risks of using fossil fuels.

So, the petroleum papers are important because they help us know the truth about the risks of using fossil fuels, and they remind us that we need to think carefully about how we use these materials so we can protect the environment and ourselves.