Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels are remains of living organisms from the past, compressed at high temperature
and pressure over millions of years. They are coal, which is made from dead plant matter, and
oil and gas, which are made from dead ocean plants & animals.These fossil fuels have a lot of
energy contained within them, which gets out when the fuel is burned.

Natural Gas Oil Coal

As well as producing electricity in power plants by making steam to spin a turbine and
generator, fossil fuels also have other uses:
Coal - when burned releases a lot of heat which can be used to heat homes.

Natural gas - can be burned for heating and is also used for cooking.

Oil - This fossil fuel has many uses, it provides the fuel for most of the world's transport
(cars, motorbikes, planes, boats and trains), it is also used for making many products
including medicine, cosmetics and most plastics.

Fossil fuels are the most popular source of energy in the world by a long way.
Responsible for more than 80% of the world's energy supply!

When we burn anything smoke is created which can include harmful substances.

The burning of fossil fuels and plastics (which are products of fossil fuels) are the
leading cause of air pollution in the world.

Air pollution kills more than 7 million people around the world every year!

Hanoi is often one of the most polluted

cities in the world! The World Health
Organization found that more than 60
000 deaths in Vietnam in 2016 were
linked to air pollution.
 The greenhouse effect

When fossil fuels are burnt they produce many ‘greenhouse gasses’
Examples: Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide.

These greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere work to

absorb and trap heat from the sun on our planet.

Without greenhouse gasses our planet would be too cold.

The planet would be so cold the ocean would be frozen
and it would be very hard for life to survive here.

Greenhouse gasses have appeared

naturally on our planet for billions of
years.

They act like a blanket around the

planet, keeping it warm enough for
many kinds of life to be able to
survive here.

Greenhouse temperature heat atmosphere reflected prevent extra

rising enhanced climate-change increased humans

Without the _____________effect we would be living in a very chilly place—the world's

average _________ would be -18°C, instead of the 15°C we are used to.
The sun sends __________, which passes through Earth's ________________and is
absorbed by Earth's surface.
Some energy is __________ back into the atmosphere, 'Greenhouse' gasses
_________some of this heat from leaving the atmosphere.

Human activities have led to a lot of __________ greenhouse gasses in the

atmosphere. As a result, average temperatures are ____________! Temperatures will
continue to rise if greenhouse gasses keep building up in the atmosphere.
The _______________ greenhouse effect, sometimes referred to as
____________________or global warming, is the impact on the climate from
_____________ amounts of greenhouse gasses that ___________ have released into
the earth's atmosphere.