Fossil Fuels
Energy is one of the basic necessities of our universe. It is the master resource, because it enables us to convert one material into another. Most of the energy we use today and have used for a while comes from fossil fuels. A fossil fuel is any naturally occurring fuel of an organic nature formed by the decomposition of plants or animals. There are three fossil fuels. These include coal, oil, and natural gas. These fossil fuels prove to be very important in our everyday lives. They provide 88 percent of all primary energy and 70 percent of all electricity that we use in the United States today. They make it possible for automobiles, airplanes, ships, and trains, as well as many other powered machines to function. These fossil fuels even act as a “universal currency”(Energy Policy 7) between the United States and many other countries we trade with and buy from. But every year our country grows. People make more money, buy more things, and use more energy. This is called the “Wealth Effect”(Energy Policy 14). How long will these natural resources, we call fossil fuels, last? Our most abundant fossil fuel is coal. Coal is primarily used in the United States to generate electricity. It is burned in power plants to produ
So just how can we conserve our fossil fuel resources? “The amount of fossil fuels burned by people to produce energy has nearly doubled every year twenty years since 1900”(Future Fuels 98). This rapid growth of energy use threatens to exhaust the world’s supply. As consumers and citizens of the United States there are many things that you can do to preserve our fossil fuel supply. “The less hot water you use, turning off unnecessary lights, and using public transportation will help to preserve our supply”(Energy Forever 67). But conservation has to start globally. Most of the responsibility for the conserving of fossil fuels rests with individualized nations, because they consume the majority of the world’s energy. If we keep on the same road we are on right now, eventually we are going to have to start looking for other sources of energy. Another very valuable fuel that we have is natural gas. “It is the ideal fossil fuel. It is easy to transport, clean, and easy to use”(Fossil Energy Gas 3). Natural gas is mainly made up of the chemical called methane. Methane is a colorless, odorless gas that is the most simple of the hydrocarbons formed naturally from the decay of organic matter. Natural gas provides one-fifth of all the energy used in the United States. It is especially important in homes. It is used for cooking, heating, and other household appliances. The U.S. is looking for a lot more ways to use natural gas, largely because it is easy to pipe from one location to another and because it burns so cleanly, causing very little air pollution. All of the effects from discovering fossil fuels as a source of energy have not been positive. There are a number of different problems that come up when you burn fossil fuels. The first one is the global warming problem often called “the Green House Effect”(Hidden Costs 1). Which is simply the warming of the earths surface and lower atoms caused by the trapping of radiated heat, causing a thermal blanket over our atmosphere. A chemical called carbon dioxide that gets trapped in the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. The material that formed fossil fuels varied greatly over time as each layer was buried. As a result of these variations and the length of time the coal was forming, several different types of coal were created. Each type of coal burns differently and releases different types of emissions. The first type is Lignite. Lignite is the world’s largest portion of the worlds coal reserves and also gives off the least amount of energy when burned. Next, is Subbituminous a scale up from Lignite, it gives off just a
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Approximate Word count = 1766
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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