why are fossil fuels bad?

Question

details i mean.....

Answer 1

By themselves, and when used (burned) in limited quantities, they are not "bad". But as consumption increases, they can get very bad.

There are many chemicals in the burning of fossil fuels ... but to make it simple, just follow the carbon (C) and oxygen (O) atoms.

Basically, life on the planet has always been a balance between CO2 breathers (plants and green algae), and O2 breathers (animals). Each exhales the gas needed by the other. People often don't realize that the earth originally had *no* free O2 gas in the atmosphere until the CO2 breathers put it there. This was good for the plants and algae (and even better for the first life forms, for which oxygen is toxic).

Fossil fuels are the results of billions of years of life extracting carbon (C atoms) from the atmosphere and fixing it in bodies. When the bodies die and rot, the carbon stays earthbound. That is what oil and coal are ... the dregs of all the life forms that have existed since the beginning of the earth.

Then humans come along and learn how to extract energy from that carbon-based sludge (coal and oil) by burning it. However, this releases that carbon back into the atmosphere, primarily in the form of CO and CO2. In small quantities this is not a problem ... the green algae and plant life on earth is quite happy to take this nice CO2 and turn it back into O2. But humans have gotten better and better at burning more and more of this carbon-based sludge, and may have reached the point where we are putting carbon back into the atmosphere faster than the green-life can reprocess it. The result is that carbon is accumulating in the upper atmosphere, which traps heat like a greenhouse and we're starting to see an overall warming of the planet. How much of this is directly attributed to human consumption of fossil fuels is heavily debated ... but few people disagree that the earth is getting concerningly warmer, and we are certainly not helping the problem.

In other words, the problem is that fossil fuels are such an *easy* method of energy production (just suck it up and burn it), that we have let it become our *primary* source of energy. And as the human population has skyrocketed, so has our carbon output.

A second reason is political: Specifically, the biggest fossil fuel (oil) reserves are in the middle east. And other countries need access to that oil too ... most notably China. (Aside: I don't believe U.S. and China will be fighting a military war in the coming decades, but an *economic* war ... and the stakes are the claim to being the dominant superpower in the coming decades. So whoever has the most secure energy resources, will have a *huge* advantage.)

In other words, "they" got it, and "we" absolutely need it. So we need to buy it from "them", or steal it.

And both activities (buying or stealing) have led to big problems in the middle east. Either we end up propping up overwealthy, corrupt regimes as long as they are willing to sell oil to us ... or we end up in escalating hostilities with nations that are no longer willing to do business with us.

Think about it. If Iraq's main product was garbanzo beans, would we be in Iraq today?

Answer 2

Fossil fuels ,when burnt, release harmful products into the atmosphere (like sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain). Water pollution is a problem such as with oil spills. Fossil fuels are finite which we are begining to understand with the cost of petroleum.

Answer 3

People have already answered. I'll summarise.
1. They produce fallout in the form of smog and acid rain.
2. They produce carbon dioxide. Possible cause of global warming.
3. They are finite.
On the other hand if it wasn't for fossil fuel we wouldn't be living in an industrialised world. The pre industrialised world was not as much fun as romantic greenies will tell you.

Answer 4

Their rate of renewal is a whole lot less than their rate of consumption. It is guesstimated that there will be a gigantic oil problem in a little at 20 to 25 years--meaning we'll have used almost ALL of it up from all sources everywhere.
The extraction of energy from out of the fuels, i.e. burning them, generates LOTS of pollution into the air and environment. The most prevalent, because it is mostly the burning of gasoline, is carbon-monoxide. You know, what some have shown is the leading chemical cause of global warming.

So the two main things I can think of are:
*their lack of renewability
*the inefficient methods of extracting the inherent energy generates huge amounts of pollution

Answer 5

In the strictest sense they are not bad. They heat our house and drive economies. It is hard to find more energy in something as small as a gallon of gasoline.

However, they do produce particlates, pollution, smog and, perhaps, climate change. Which is bad if it happens faster than evolution can keep up with it,

Answer 6

Oil and gas can only last so long, we are using it much faster than it can form. What happens when it runs out??


They produce chemicals which are harmful to the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide.

Answer 7

Fossil fuels are not bad...

Answer 8

Bad meaning bad or bad meaning good

Answer 9

try this : polution.........