Geography

How coal is formed

1. Energy from the sun is captured by plants in warm swampy areas.

2. Dead plants fall I n swamps.
3. Mud builds up in the swamps over millions of years.
4. Intense heat and pressure of the mud changes the dead plants
into coal.

Importance of fossil fuels

1. Most of the electricity in the world is made from fossil fuels and just
imagine life without electricity. No electric lights, phones, TVs,
computers etc.
2. Coke (from coal) is burned in blast furnaces to extract iron for
making steel. Steel is needed everywhere - in buildings, bridges,
buses, cars, ships, trains.
3. Fossil fuels are also used to heat furnaces for making cement,
brick and glass. Without these what would you live in?
4. We use fossil fuels to heat our homes and for cooking.
5. Oil is turned into petrol and diesel, which we use to get around. If
the supply ran out today people could not get to work, or school, or
hospital. Food would not reach shops. We’d starve.
6. Oil is important for many other reasons too. It’s the starting point
for hundreds of things like plastics, medical drugs, shampoo,
makeup, fleeces etc. If it ran out today - say goodbye to a lot of
goods you take for granted