Fossil fuel is any hydrocarbon-containing substance
Fossil fuel is any hydrocarbon-containing substance that originated from biological sources. These are primarily petroleum and natural gas, but they can also include coal, oil shales, tar sands, and heavy oils. They contain carbon and were formed during the process of photosynthesis, which began during the Archean Eon. The use of fossil fuel is widespread in the developing world, especially in China and India. In the United States, about a quarter of all energy comes from fossil fuel.
Fossil fuels are formed from the burial of photosynthetic organisms such as plankton and land plants. These organisms help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slow down the movement of carbon through the carbon cycle. Fossil fuels, however, return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere hundreds to thousands of times faster than they were removed by the carbon cycle. This means that our planet faces a looming environmental crisis.
As a result, governments provide subsidies worth seven hundred billion to one trillion dollars a year for the production of fossil fuels. These subsidies vary depending on the price of oil, but are consistently in the hundreds of billions of dollars. However, it is unclear how much money actually comes from fossil fuels, and more information would help us understand exactly how much is being spent on fossil fuel production and consumption. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that these subsidies cost the world economy over the next five years – an amount that works out to $10 million every minute.
While fossil fuels are abundant in nature, the resources that they contain are limited. With increasing global consumption, fossil fuels now provide over eighty percent of the energy consumed by industrialized nations. Unfortunately, there are no reliable estimates of how much can be recovered, due to the rate of consumption, the future value of the resources, and technological advances. In the meantime, the need for energy production continues to grow. The need for fossil fuels cannot be ignored.
Carbon capture and storage is the last option for stationary applications, such as heavy industry. Carbon capture involves removing CO2 from the air in order to store it in a safe location. This requires deep underground storage and industrial processes. If this method is adopted, fossil fuels would still produce CO2.
The subsidies for fossil fuel production in the United States are the most well-known, but there are also other types of subsidies. Direct funding is the most common type of fossil fuel subsidy, but other methods of supporting fossil fuel production include tax giveaways and favorable rate loans, price controls, and government resources that fossil fuel companies use at below-market rates. The United States continues to fund the production of oil, coal, and gas abroad. This practice has led to a large economic crisis that looms over the next decade.
Oil and gas are both forms of fossil fuels, although one is more prevalent than the other. Crude oil, also known as petroleum, is formed by microorganisms on the ocean floor. These oils are trapped in small spaces within rocks and can be accessed with large drilling platforms. In the refining process, these compounds are transformed into a variety of useful products. Oil is used in cars, jets, and even roads.