Fossil Fuels
Energy, whether it was sunlight or heat from a wood fire, has always been important to society. However, with the onset of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago, wood alone could no longer support the increasing energy demand. The world quickly turned to coal to satisfy its energy needs, and it has been reliant on fossil fuels ever since. Despite the inroads renewable and nuclear energies have made in recent decades, the vast majority of energy used by society still comes from the three main fossil fuels: petroleum, natural gas, and coal. As a result, it is important to know how these fuels were formed, the rates at which they are produced and consumed, and how much is economically recoverable for future use.
The formation of petroleum and natural gas began hundreds of millions of years ago as energy from the sun in the form of light radiated toward the earth. Algae that were in the ocean during this time used the sun¡¯s radiant energy to produce energy of their own through the process of photosynthesis. Plankton, being unable to produce energy on its own, consumed algae to obtain energy. When the algae and plankton died, they fell to the ocean floor and accumulated in the mud. As accumulation continued, pressure and temperature were increased on the underlying layers of organic mud. When the pressure became great enough, the mud lithified into organic-rich shale that is referred to as the source rock. If this source rock is exposed to temperatures between 80¢ªC and 160¢ªC, the organic matter forms into oil. Natural gas will form if the source rock is exposed to temperatures between 80¢ªC and 225¢ªC(Marshak 431-2). The ¡°gas window¡± overlaps the ¡°oil window¡±, which means the formation of oil and ...
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... which is having a tremendous impact on the environment. By burning these fossil fuels, the US releases five billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year(Ristinsen 333). This number will increase in the coming years, which will significantly affect the global climate of the future. Despite the limited amount of petroleum and natural gas, the addition of shale oil and tar sands to our energy reserves will increase the longevity of fossil fuel use in society. Alternative sources of energy must become more widely used, or else the earth will become uninhabitable due to the effects of global warming sooner than the fossil fuel reserves can be depleted.
Works Cited
Marshak, Stephen. Earth: Portrait of a Planet. W.W. Norton & Company; New York, 2001.
Ristinen, Robert A; Jack J. Kraushaar. Energy and the Environment. John Wiley & Sons; New York, 1999.
Mary Rowlandson was a Puritan. Puritans are very strict and believe in almost the same values that major monotheistic religions believe in; such as, the devil, they give God credit for everything, and look to God for answers and help. This pretty much speaks for every single voice Rowlandson brings forward in her memoir. Constantly and with much admiration she quotes the Bible and this shows the intensity of the situation she was dealing with and her steady trust in God. “The next day was the Sabbath, I then….His presence forever” (remove #2), as one might assume, Rowlandson very faithfully makes herself the culprit despite losing most of her family. The innocence and the thoughtfulness that comes out of this particular statement says every single thing about her, the fact that she is serious about her being, and the depth of her religious self. Religion immensely affected the experience she and her family had because as she continuously justifies the situation she is in, the Bible shapes her story. “I know O Lord that….hast afflicted me” (remove #11) and “Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it?” (Remove #15). From what I understand Rowlandson is sure that she is where s...
“Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. It was a way of life.” (“What was Jim Crow?”). The laws created a divided America and made the United States a cruel place for over 70 years. The Jim Crow Laws caused segregation in the education system, social segregation, and limited job opportunities for African Americans.
The laws known as “Jim Crow” were laws presented to basically establish racial apartheid in the United States. These laws were more than in effect for “for three centuries of a century beginning in the 1800s” according to a Jim Crow Law article on PBS. Many try to say these laws didn’t have that big of an effect on African American lives but in affected almost everything in their daily life from segregation of things: such as schools, parks, restrooms, libraries, bus seatings, and also restaurants. The government got away with this because of the legal theory “separate but equal” but none of the blacks establishments were to the same standards of the whites. Signs that read “Whites Only” and “Colored” were seen at places all arounds cities.
Frederick Douglas, Chief Joseph, and William Grahamn Sumner all used equality as a call for a social justice, but all of these men had different views on what equality truly meant. similarities occur because all these men believed that their group were put behind another group of people so their group suffered. African Americans and Indians were put behind white people, while the rich’s rights were being forgotten by the public because of the poor people. The context of each of these men shaped their views on equality, and each one of these men used equality in order to further their groups personal agenda. This is why Americans did no agree on a common definition of the word equality.
Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. (2011). Environmental science: Toward a sustainable future (11th ed., pp. 349-369). Boston: Benjamin Cummings.
The use of fossil fuels on a large scale, specifically coal, began with the Industrial Revolution in England. Industries/corporations first used coal as a main source of energy to fuel their factories, and it became even more popular when railroads started. According to the United States Energy Department, "...by the early 20th century coal had become the major fuel in the United States, accounting for nearly 75% of the nation's energy requirements." Soon after, newer and cheaper fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas, were high in demand. Energy Supplies, Sustainability, and Costs, by Sandra Alters, states oil was used as the main source of fuel to heat homes and offices, and gas powered the growing number of cars (57). "Oil shoved aside coal as the world's primary fuel, just as coal had replaced wood", says Tom Mast in Over a Barrel: A Simple Guide to the Oil Shortage (15). Most Americans were not concerned wit...
Over the last two centuries, humanity has become increasingly reliant on fossil fuels. Over that time, the consequences of constantly burning fossil fuels have accumulated into a threat to industrialized cities. The burning of fossil fuels causes acid rain to shower on cities and ecosystems around the world, tormenting their inhabitants. The increasingly deadly pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels has caused the deaths of many people around the world by causing respiratory problems. Not only has the pollution worsened, but the supply of fossil fuels is not limitless – as humanity’s reliance increases the supply decreases, and that is all the more reason to break humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels. Fossil fuels should be replaced with cleaner alternatives because fossil fuels cause environmental hazards, are non-renewable, and are detrimental to human health.
The effects of using fossil fuels are starker than their timelines. Humans release approximately two billion metric tons of pollution annually, mostly from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas; this pollution is destroying our environment and the ozone layer. Ozone and smog damage forests, crops, and other plant life, and reduces visibility. Other pollutants have the same
During the eighteenth century, Jonathan Swift was distributing pamphlets around Ireland in hopes of promoting intellectual growth in his homeland. As he noticed this was not making an impact, he decided to address the problems in Ireland with a different approach. Jonathan Swift took to paper and constructed “A Modest Proposal”, a satirical piece that proposes a humorous solution to the social, economic, and political problems in Ireland. Swift’s proposal suggests that babies who are born to poor families become a source of food for public, which benefits Ireland by reducing the overpopulation and adding to the food supply. In “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift uses satire to draw attention to his argument that the problems in Ireland are greatly affecting his homeland; in doing so, he portrays the themes of class division, suffering, and greed.
It is unfortunate that within the past 100 years our worlds' economy has driven itself into a deep hole with the reliance on a "black gold" called oil. Since its discovery, it has been purified to produce many different forms of energy such as light, gasoline and more. Since technology has enabled mankind to discover more capable methods of transportation, mankind has exploited its power over nature and produced machines such as the combustion engine. In combustion engine's, oil explodes to move machinery, and emits a very toxic byproduct called CO2. Carbon is incredibly dangerous to the earth's atmosphere, and erodes huge holes in the ozone layer of our earth. This erosion causes global warming and climate change that is permanent and irreversible. The impact of global warming will not only ...
March 17, 2014. Hinrichs, Roger ; Kleinbach, Merlin. Energy, Its Use and the Environment. 2013. The. Print.
These individuals feel that it is an invasion of the teenagers’ right to privacy and the development of their trustworthiness. Kay Mathieson states “only by giving children privacy will they come to see their thoughts as something that belongs to them – to which they have an exclusive right.” In the United States and according to the law, monitoring the internet usage of a minor does not break any laws and is a moral obligation of the parent. Trustworthiness is an important development of a child to learn in order to develop genuine relationships with others in the lifetime. “Not only does monitoring have the great potential to undermine the trust of the child in the parent, and thus to undermine trust in others more generally, it also has the potential to undermine the capacity of the child to be worth of trust” (Mathieson). If the parent has not already had conversations with the teenager about monitoring internet usage and the parent is not telling the child about the monitoring, there is already an issue with the development of trustworthiness in the teenager. There was already a failure of development of this skill before the internet or internet monitoring was introduced.
The burning of fossil fuels has greatly harmed our environment and is a leading cause as to why climate change has become such a threat to our way of living. In May of 2013, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million, an increase of more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This could cause the Arctic Ocean to be nearly ice-free during the summer by 2020(Overland and Wang, 2013).
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)
...g the Energy Revolution." Foreign Affairs. Nov/Dec 2010: 111. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Nov 2011.