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What's Wrong with Fossil Fuels?
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What's Wrong with Fossil Fuels? There's an awful lot of debate about fossil fuels...but what's it all about? Fossil fuels contain carbon, ie. coal, oil and gas. It took millions of years for them to form from the anaeorobic composition of vegetation or organisms.  Man has long used fossil fuels for heat, light and later, power. Man initially burnt wood, peat and then coal and oil, but in the past fifty years we have refine these fuels to provide various fuels such as diesel, petrol, paraffin, natural gas, marine fuel and so on. The demand for these fuels and electricity to power our homes, industries and businesses has grown to such an extent that we are beginning to see a time when there will be no oil, gas or coal left.This is because they are 'non-renuable energies'. In other words, they took so many millions of years to form that once they are used up, they are gone forever. We cannot grow them. We cannot make them. There are many problems with fossil fuels, one of the biggest we face is that when fossil fuels are burnt, they realease carbon dioxide int  o the atmosphere and currently only around half that can be absorbed by natural processes - plant respiration cycles and oceans. CO2 is a 'greenhouse gas' and is understood to be a major factor in climate change.So why would Australia be looking at building more coal-powered power stations....beats us! if ever a country was blessed with sun, it's got to be Oz. But without political will power to get those solar panels churning out across the roof space of our sun-blessed country, we're sunk! So what else is bad about fossil fuels.... 1. Environmental Impacts  Yup, mining for coal, drilling and transporting oil and gas can negatively impact our ecosystems. Oil spills kill marine life including aquatic birds and leave sea water contaminated and shorelines coated with a thick icky blanket of oil which takes years to clean-up. Coal mines litter our countryside with machinery and coal tips. Not pretty.2. Air pollution  Toxic particles from combusted fossil fuels become suspended in the air that we breate: carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and hydrocarbons. Suspended particulates contribute to air pollution, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons form smog. Everyone suffers - breathing in this smog causes breathing difficulties and later, lung disease. Countries with highly industrialised areas such as China are permanantly clouded in an ash-grey haze of pollution and many people go about their daily lives with a mask over their face in the hope it will protect them. 3. Thermal Pollution  Burning fossil fuels produces heat, much of which is used to generate electricity, some is wasted and ends up raising the temperature of water being used as a coolant. . This can be devastating for ecosystems when returned to rivers, lakes and estuaries. Some flora and fauna have very narrow temperature ranges in which they can survive or breed.http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/impacts/the-hidden-cost-of-fossil.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ggg3C87UVCY |
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