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Fossil fuels by definition are a natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. They affect almost everything we do. Our world, our environment, our homes, our cars, fossil fuels affect all of it. They are quite possibly the most important energy source we use today. As a matter of fact, the majority of our energy, close to ninety percent, comes from coal, oil, and natural gas. It is alarming that ninety percent of greenhouse gases come from fossil fuels, it is alarming because fossil fuels are destroying our planet.
Fossil fuels were formed hundreds of millions of years ago from prehistoric plants and animals. When the living organisms died, they decomposed and became buried in the earth. “During the millions of years that passed, the dead plants and animals slowly decomposed into organic materials and formed fossil fuels. Different types of fossil fuels were formed depending on what combination of animal and plant debris was present, how long the material was buried, and what conditions of temperature and pressure existed when they were decomposing”(U.S. Department of Energy). Fossil fuels are finite resources. Simply said, coal, oil and natural gas are non-renewable and cannot be replenished as fast as it is being
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Extractions continue on a daily basis providing abundant fuel resources for use. Vast amounts of energy can be fabricated through the high combustibility of the fuels. In fact, they have the highest calorific value in terms of energy. Fossil fuels are composed of molecules of carbon and hydrogen making them an extremely stable energy source. Holding the biggest advantage and making them very attractive is the feature that they can be transported and stored
Semantically fossil fuels are a renewable source of energy, however given that it takes millions of years for the organic materials to be broken down and converted, it is wholly unrealistic to consider them as renewable. As the demand for fossil fuels increases and source diminish faster than they are replentished, the United States must work towards a renewable energy independent state using truly renable sources, both technically and in practice. With changes in the home, as consumers in buying goods and with alternative fuel sources backed by public trust and governmental involvement, the United States could drastically lessen its dependence on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.
Coal is by far the most abundant of fossil fuels, and will be available for much longer than oil. Having been harvested and burned since the 13th century, a massive infrastructure has been formed to quickly and efficiently mine, deliver, and burn coal. Coal is also the cheapest of fossil fuels (The Futurist, 1997)
The U.S federal government should significantly increase fracking because oil and gas fracking is big business in America, with more than two million hydraulically fractured wells across the country producing 43 and 67 percent of our national oil and gas outputs, respectively. But in my opinion these wells also nearly played a secondary role as nuclear waste storage sites and had the Atomic Energy Commission had its way with Project Plowshare. And fracking is the process of pumping water deep into the Earth, specifically into underground oil and gas reserves, at tremendous pressures in order to break apart the surrounding rock and free the energy product, which can then be pumped out and used. However in the mid 1950s, scientists from the Atomic Energy Commission and officials from the U.S. Bureau of Mines did begin experimenting with an alternative method of fracking, one that employed nuclear bombs more powerful than anything we dropped on the Japanese.
Fossil fuels are very limited and they are used a lot. Fossil fuels are also very harmful to nature. Carbon emissions, that are produced from the use of fossil fuels, affects the globe
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves injecting massive amounts of water, chemicals, sand and other material under high pressure into shale formations to break the rock and release the gas trapped inside (McGlynn, D., 2011).
In today’s world humans are consuming massive amounts of fossil fuels. The top five oil consuming countries in the world are the usual suspects. These include the United States, China, Japan, India and Russia. Canada comes in at number 10 with a daily consumption of 2,287 thousand barrels per day. There are three major types of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. These resources were formed during the Carboniferous Period 360-286 million years ago. During this time earth was covered in swamps with large amounts of plants and waters filled with algae. When these plants and trees began to die they would form layers of peat. Hundreds and thousands of years would pass adding sand and other materials on top of the peat. This formed the sedimentary rocks we know today. As the thousands of years turned into millions of years the water of the peat layer was pushed out of the peat until the layer of diatoms turned into coal, oil or natural gas (CEC, 2013). Canada has oil industry throughout the country and currently 12 out of 13 provinces are active in the oil industry. Natural gas production is occurring in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Natural gas could also become large industry in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Oil production is currently taking place in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland & Labrador (CAPP, 2013).
Oil Sands are a type of bitumen deposit, the sands are naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, water, and an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. They are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but are found in extremely large quantities in Canada and Venezuela. Along with the local environmental and human-health impacts have contributed to the debate surrounding the resource. While many welcome it because it benefits the Canadian economy, Canada became U.S. and a curial energy source. To start off, a pro is that the oil sands have spurred massive economic growth in Alberta. Oil sands continue to generate huge profits to Canada and provide thousands of jobs for the residents including mining, research and
Do you ever think about how our world might deplete our coal or oil resources? Fossil fuels, which are made of coal or natural gas, and oil have all supplied a majority of our energy. Fossil fuels burn carbon fuels such as; oil, coal, and gas to create steam to have large turbines generate electricity. Fossil fuels provided more than 80% of America’s energy in 2017. Those sources have been providing our country since the industrial revolution, but their production, limitation, and use have significant health and environmental impacts, environmental degradation, and global warming. Wind power in Illinois provided 5.7% of the state's electrical power in 2016. The issue I focused on resolving was finding renewable ways of generating
In recent history there has been a push to find more efficient sources of energy as we are quickly depleting the ones that we currently use. Fracking in definition means “Hydraulic fracking is a well stimulation process used to maximize the extraction of underground resources; including oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, and even water.” (Hydraulic Fracturing), which basically means they shoot harmful chemicals into the ground in order to bring up natural gas or other materials. Although there seem to be many benefits to fracking to get these resources, there are more disadvantages. There are many issues that stem from hydraulic fracking but the most predominant seem to be; the many health risks associated with the toxic chemicals used in the process, the pollution put into the air with the high methane use, and the degrading of local infrastructure and the environmental degrade from the invasive process used.
of Fossil fuels is important to us because when fossil fuels are being burned they can produce
The three fossil fuels- coal, crude oil, and gas slowly formed over millions of years. These days, we use fossil fuels to power everything- homes, buildings, cars, computers, lights, etc. However, fossil fuels deposits will run out soon, which is a huge problem. Extracting, transporting, and burning fossil fuels are dangerous. There are also many negative biological and environmental impacts that result from the use of fossil fuels, such as ocean acidification, groundwater contamination, land subsidence, oil spills, and global warming. Therefore, we should be trying to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and explore alternative energy sources such as wind energy, hydroelectricity, and solar energy instead. Our world depends on fossil fuels, but they can also hurt us. Fossil fuels are both a blessing and a curse.
Today, there are many environmental issues that are being brought to light around the world, one of these issues is fracking, which can defined as “a process by which pressurized fluid increases the amount and decree of fractures in subsurface rock layers,” (Hyder). Fracking is a process of extracting oil which can have major disadvantages that can affect the population.
Fossil fuels are energy that is in the form of coal, oil, or natural gas that comes from organisms from millions of years ago. The cycle to create fossil fuels takes millions of years to form and is therefore considered a nonrenewable resource of energy. Fossil fuels have been the primary source of energy for man ever since the age of machines, but one of “the main problem[s] with fossil fuels is that there is a limited amount of them” (Problem with Fossil Fuel). As countries become more developed, like the United States, they too will become more thirsty and dependent for fossil fuels. “In 2004, America spent approximately $270 billion to fufill its oil need.” and “90% of all transportation is fueled by oil” (Nakaya 10). With the global rate of fossil fuels going up it is inevitable that they are going to run out, forcing countries to choose an alternative energy source. The other huge problem with dependence on fossil fuels is the effect that the emissions have on the climate. Fossil fuels are made of carbon chains and in order for the reaction...
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)
Fossil fuels are used and burned for the engines of ships, cars, airplane and helicopter engines, lawn appliances, saws, and other machineries. Since the less dense liquid products are in heavy demand for engines for combustion, a refinery will use its ability to convert dense hydrocarbons and less dense gaseous components into numerous higher value products. Petroleum refineries produce millions and millions of crude oil. Interestingly, one oil refinery located in Israel is capable of making up to nine millions tons of crude oil just in one year! The cooling towers of this facility extend so high up into the air, making magnificent landmarks!