Fossil Fuels

● What are fossil fuels?

Fossil fuels are materials formed by natural means that consist of the
decomposition of living beings in places where the pressure and temperatures are
high (like the underground), causing the chemical components of it to change,
becoming richer in carbon, thus having a higher energetic value.
The main fossil fuels used are:
● Oil (also called petroleum)
● Coal
● Natural gas

Nowadays, these materials have a very important role in our society and
almost everyone uses it on a day to day basis.
Fossil fuels are very important to society; they are the base of a lot of
products that we use in our day-a-day lives.
Fist of all, oil is one of the most used material in the creation products, like:
fuels for vehicles, for example gasoline and diesel; the majority of plastic and rubber
used in our lives; some clothes are made out of oil derivatives, as well as
medicaments, like painkillers, and a lot of chemicals products, for example cleaning
products.
Coal and natural gas are often used to produce energy (on centrals), and to
be used as fuels in houses (to warm up water or to fuel stoves).

● What are the disadvantages of fossil fuels?

The burning of fossil fuels produces around 35 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
per year. This is very harmful for our planet, because the natural processes of
absorption of this gas can’t deal with the big amounts of carbon dioxide produced by
fossil fuels.
From all the problems associated with it, the most problematic ones are
● Global warming
● Air pollution
● Water pollution
These problems lead to a lot of other problems.
 ● Increase of global warming
Because CO2 is a greenhouse gas (that is a gas that absorbs and emits
radiant energy), the accumulation of it in the atmosphere may lead to the increase of
the greenhouse effect. Thus, this leads to the increase of the temperature of our
planet causing global warming.
By itself, global warming isn't a bad thing - it is necessary for the maintenance
of a stable earth’s temperature -however, the increase of it has a huge impact on our
planet that we will be talking about a bit.

● Air pollution
The most common way of air pollution related to fossil fuels is Smog. Smog is
the abbreviation for smoke and fog, and it is a type of air pollution that occurs due to
the burn of fossil fuels from vehicles and industries, that will send poluent gases to
the atmosphere (like sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide) that will react with the
sunlight in the atmosphere, creating a fog of pollutant gasses that have a high impact
on people’s health.
This phenomenon is more common in urban zones, like big cities. Some of
the most affected cities by smog are Pequim and New York.

● Water pollution

The mix between the gases released during the burnt of fossil fuel and the
water vapor and oxygen in the atmosphere creates an acid substance that is
released in the form of rain. This phenomenon is called acid rain and has a big
impact on ecosystems, especially aquatic ones. This also has an impact in the
human buildings, especially the ones made out of limestone, since the acid
decomposes that material, destroying the buildings made out of it.

● The impact of fossil fuels on the living beings

As it was already mentioned, the use of fossil fuels is both directly and
indirectly responsible for the destruction and harm of ecosystems and living beings,
including human beings, all around the world:

➢ The increase of the temperature (caused by global warming) causes severe

droughts, leading to the death of a lot of animals and plants. This problem
used to be more usual in high temperature zones, like savannas, but
nowadays, due to the increase of temperature, a lot of temperate zones are
experiencing lack of water, for example the south of Portugal.
 ➢ Another problem caused by the global increase of temperature is the melting
of icebergs, which not only destroys the habitat of living beings who live in icy
zones, but it also makes the cea level increase, which can lead to a
catastrophic event, where coastal countries get submersed by the ocean.

➢ The occurrence of acid rains makes the water of rivers, lakes, and even the
oceans themselves to acidify. This can lead to the death of a lot of fishes that
aren’t usd to these acid levels, killing not only the food of a lot of marine
animals, but also the food of humans.

➢ Another big problem related to this topic is the oil spill. This problems happen
when boats carrying oil sink, leaving the oil in the ocean. This has high
ambiental and economic impact, since the cleaning of this substance is very
difficult and expensive, and affects marine life a lot, leading animals to be
covered in oil, dying a painful and long death.

● Ways to reduce the use of fossil fuels

Because it takes millions of years to form, fossil fuels are considered limited
resources, and, taking the way we use them in count, they will soon run out, causing
catastrophic consequences in human society, since they are present in almost all of
the sectors of human activity.

So, taking in count the amount of fossil fuels that we have, and the impact
they have on the biosphere, we tried to find some alternatives to this substances:

➢ In the transport sector, using electric cars may be one of the most simple
solutions, because, despite being very expensives at the moment, in the long
run they may be the solution to the use of fossil fuels as vehicles fuel.

➢ In the energetic sector, the investment on renewable energy sources (like

solar energy and wind energy) may be the answer. Although at the moment
they are not as effective as the use of fossil fuels, with some more investment,
they may surpass them in efficiency.

➢ The use of biologic materials to create plastic and rubber can replace the use
of oil. Some materials like sugar cane corn can be used to create plastic, and
ruber can be made out of látex, which is a material extracted from a tree.

● Conclusion
Although fossil fuels have a lot of problems involved, they still are some of the
most used substances in the world. We need to fight against the use of them if we
want to have a brighter and cleaner future, not only for our species, but for all the
species around the world.