The use of Fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, belongs the past. Fossil fuels are natural fuels that are formed when remains of dead organisms pass through episodes of natural processes such as decomposition and disintegration; that exceeded millions of years. Fossil fuels include coal, oil and natural gas; they are categorized as fuels due to their ability to release energy when they undergo combustion. Meanwhile, they are the main source of producing the energy that is consumed by humanity. The scope of this essay will discuss the different advantages and disadvantages of using fossil fuels as sources of energy and alternative energy sources and methods discovered by environmentalists that are more environmentally friendly. Fossil …show more content…
For a start, the burning of fossil fuels is the major factor causing pollution globally. They contribute greatly to global warming as they release carbon dioxide causing greenhouse effects. Global warming causes drastic changes to our environment including the melting of ice caps, the rising of sea level which cause flooding, and the increase in temperature, which affect organisms. Moreover, the burning of fossil fuels can also result in the creation of acid rain. This is caused by sulphur dioxide being emitted from coal burning. Acid rain has continuous negative effects on the environment such as polluting fresh water and killing …show more content…
Thus alternatives may include solar energy and wind power. Solar energy has multiple advantages including that it is infinite and it does not cause pollution. Likewise, wind energy is infinite and makes great energy sources in remote locations. However, both solar and wind energy are not always available. Solar energy depends on the time of day and the weather of each country while in some areas wind is not strong enough to generate electricity through the windmills. Moreover, both solar panels and windmills are expensive to manufacture and they both occupy large amounts of land. Many argue that ecosystems and habitats are destroyed by building solar panels and windmills even though they do not cause
If we increase the efficiency remarkably, we may be able to consume fewer fossil fuels and may be able to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere therefore saving Mother Earth. This will not happen shortly, but in the future when my great-great-grandchildren are in the working force designing these engines.
In 1908, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) predicted that the total future supply of U.S. oil would not exceed 23 billion barrels. In 1914, the U.S. Bureau of Mines predicted that only 5.7 billion barrels of oil remained. In 1920, the USGS proclaimed the peak in U.S. oil production was almost reached. In 1939, the Department of Interior declared that there was only 13 years of oil production remaining. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter claimed, “We are now running out of oil.” Despite these predictions, the U.S. has produced over 200 billion barrels of oil since the early 1900’s. (The Futurist, 1997)
The first reason alternative fuels should be used is to better the environment. One way of bettering the environment and finding a fuel that would no longer depend on outsourced oil and other fossil fuels would be to create a man made fuel that would power many different vehicles. Another way to better the environment would be to introduce a fuel that vehicles could use that would have less pollution or no pollution and would not harm the environment.
From the home to factories, families and industries are reliant on the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels to feed the needs of the everyday human. Fossil fuels are the main source of energy over clean, renewable sources such as the use of wind, solar energy, and water to power our homes, schools, and industries. In fact, about 85% of energy use comes from fossils fuels. The main reason being that using fossil fuels is cheaper than wind and solar energy. “For nearly two centuries, fossil fuels have been the cheapest source of energy” and widely abundant (Marburger, A global framework: international aspects of climate change). However, overtime fossil fuels will disappear due to the lack of time to replenish itself with the human races rapid use of it. Despite its current status of availability, there are many controversial issue in using fossil fuels; the most prominent issue being that it is the cause of rapid climate
What is Hydraulic Fracturing or as some refer to as Fracking? Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking is a method of mining. The process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressure in order to crack shale rocks and release trapped natural gas from the ground. Fracking was first used in 1947, at the Hugoton field in southwestern Kansas. Stanolind Oil (AMOCO) was the company that conducted the experimental fracking method. Floyd Farris, who works for AMOCO, is the person who preformed studies of the pressure of injecting water and certain chemicals into oil and gas wells; the process of fracking was introduced. Fracking can produce a lot of energy, but it also has the potential to harm the environment. One question that is asked is “Will Fracking affect our water that we drink and change our lifestyle?” America could become independent on energy if there is more fracking. Independence on gas and oil would help all of our country.
Biodiesel is considered an environmentally friendly alternative because it reduces the amount many toxic substances. Plants such as soybeans require carbon dioxide from the air to produce their stems, roots and leaves. During biodiesel production from soybean oil, carbon dioxide is produced and released in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is considered a green house gas (GHG). However, this cycle of GHG emission does not neccersarily contribute to the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This is because the next soybean crop will reuse the carbon dioxide emitted for its growth. Another important environmental benefit is that biodiesel reduces particulate matter (PM), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. These benefits occur because biodiesel contains 11% oxygen by weight. Oxygen allows the fuel to burn better, resulting in fewer emissions from unburned fuel. And lastly, biodiesel fuels do not contain any sulfur and does not have an unpleasant smell when it is emitted from vehicles.
Throughout the past three decades, energy has been a perennial issue in United States politics, economics, and media. The main concern surrounding this topic is the idea of energy independence and how the United States should proceed into the future. Energy independence relates to the goal of reducing United States dependence on importing foreign oil and other foreign energy sources. This desire aims to maintain energy dependence domestically so the United States can avoid reliance on any unstable countries and be detached from global energy supply distribution. It is currently being speculated that the United States might not be too far off from this goal. America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since 2007. In 2010, the U.S. imported less than 50 percent of the oil the country consumed -- the first time that’s happened in 13 years -- and the trend continued in 2011 (Zhang.) Experts credit new technology as the reason the United States is within several years of again becoming the biggest oil producer in the world, and perhaps two decades away from full energy independence. Hydraulic fracturing, fracking, is the “lead” technology in this technological revolution. Fracking is an economically more feasible way of drilling for oil or gas in harder to reach geological formation. Within the past decade or so, combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling has opened up shale deposits across the country. It has brought large-scale natural gas drilling to new regions that may not have had accessible deposits in the past. These areas have greatly benefited from the addition of this industry to their local economies. Certain are...
We should start using coal for energy, because it offers more jobs to people, we have a surplus of it produces power faster and we don’t have to worry about it going out. Cheapest source of energy and coal provides a stable energy source. It is by far cheaper than nuclear, natural gas, oil (No Arab oil embargoes, no sudden sacristy like you experience with natural gas). Offers more jobs to people in the United States of American. It offers jobs by giving people jobs and that’s more money for the country bye them selling it and making that money off that
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.
In 2007, the world consumed 5.3 billion tons of coal, 31.1 billion tons of oil, 2.92 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 65,000 tons of uranium. All of these energy needs could have been met with only 6,600 tons of thorium, an abundant, slightly radioactive element found in the Earth’s crust.
Fossil fuels are an unreliable and unsafe source for worldwide energy. Our common fuels will run out as in: Ethanol, Petroleum, and Oil. Honestly we need those fuels for life, to drive cars, four wheelers, lawn mowers, and tractors, etc. If we did not have those things anymore our ways of living will drastically decrease. People in our society are so use to driving vehicles that if that gets taken away World War III would start. We use lawn mowers to cut our grass, to keep our land in shape and pretty. We also use tractors for multiple things not only to keep big pastures in shape, but also to use for logging. People do logging for a living. Without tractors their job would be very intense.(conserve-energy-future.com)
Fossil fuels are an important part of life. When you turn on the lights, watch TV, or take a shower, the electricity that you are using is being generated by fossil fuels. The three types of fossil fuels are coal, crude oil, and natural gas. They all take millions of years to form, so they are considered to be “non-renewable”- eventually, the fossil fuels will all be used up. One dangerous biological effect of using fossil fuels is ocean acidification. Extracting and transporting fossil fuels can also be very dangerous. Environmentally damaging accidents such as groundwater contamination, land subsidence, and oil spills occur frequently. Global warming is another possible environmental effect. Fossil fuels have a crucial role in modern society, but since they are non-renewable and dangerous, we should reduce our dependence on them and explore alternative energy sources. Wind energy, hydroelectricity, and solar energy are some examples of renewable fuel sources. There are also many things that people can do everyday to save energy (and, in turn, conserve fossil fuels).
Biofuels produce lesser levels of toxic emissions. The usage of fossil fuels captures heat within the atmosphere of the earth which causes the greenhouse effect, resulting to global warming. Hence biofuels release fewer of these greenhouse gases and so likely contribute less to global warming. Primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests have intensified the natural greenhouse effect
Timothy Mitchell in his book is trying to explain the relationship between fossil fuels and democracy. Mitchell in his narrative reverses the so-called "oil curse" and instead of focusing on the oil money, he studied the processes of oil, the flows of transportation, the status workers had in the oil production and their democratic rights. As Mitchell claims in his introduction, he considers the democracies not as "carbon-copies" but as "carbon based"(p.5). He argues that the exploitation of the coal and oil led to the creation of political and financial systems that either can develop or limit democratic opportunities.(p.6) That is crucial for Mitchel's argument as he points out that the dependence of the world on oil has led to several crises such as the climate change and the "exhaustion of supplies." (p.6)
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)