Is the root cause is fossil fuels?

Question

Since the industrial revolution Fossil fuels have been the primary solution to many problems , keeping warm, keeping cool, travelling, getting to the moon etc. etc.. Is this the reason why so many people can't get thier heads around global warming, because for 200 years fossils fuels have been the solution to so many of life's ills. But now...

Extra is in the title, remove whichever you please.

It's a talking point or hypothesis to disprove more than a question.

Answer 1

If we invest in renewable resources now as much as possible we should be able reduce pollution considerably electricity is clean and hybrids are very fuel efficient. If you do it now we will be able to stretch out are fossil fuels to last longer but it starts with all of us using public transportation bikes electric heating solar panels on are roofs Geo thermal heating we have all the tools today we don't have enough proof it seams to get are buts in gear to do something about it. We should do as much as we can now to try and reduce a growing problem.

Answer 2

For sure this is the root problem. More people means more cars, factories, C02 emissions in general, more sophisticated technologies that pollute in their own way. The mass majority of people don't ever want to go back to the ways of self-efficiency. The Amish have stayed this way and they pollute little to nothing. Today's society doesn't want to be Amish. We are going to keep doing what we are doing and it will increase global warming exponentially unless we control the global population AND find alternative energy solutions. There are many fictitious books that suggest ways in dealing with overpopulation like outlawing having more than one or two children or forbidding certain types of people to reproduce at all. Life imitates art. This might happen. Even if the whole world adopts alternative energy solutions (which will not happen anytime in the next 50 years or more because many societies simply cannot afford to make the transition and maintain upkeep of these technologies) there will still be pollutants going into the air, although in greatly diminished amounts. So if we only address the fossil fuel energy problem and not overpopulation, global warming will slow down but it will not stop.

Answer 3

The issue is really defined by the laws of Thermodynamics.

Entropy, the amount of disorder in a system, always increases unless energy is added to the system. If you drop a glass plate on the floor it will break, releasing energy; in order to put it back together one would have to expend more energy to repair it than was liberated in the first place to make up for the lost heat.

In order to accomplish any work energy must be expended.

Energy can be changed from one form to another, but at a cost; NO energy transformation results in increased energy (you can't win). NO energy transformation occurs without some inherent ineffeciency (you can't break even). ALL living things require energy (you can't even quit the game).

Fossil fuels are attractive because they are a "concentrated" form of solar energy that built up over eons. It is relatively inexpensive (from an energy point of view) to extract. By that I mean that the amount of energy liberated by burning fossil fuels greatly exceeds the energy required to extract and transport the fuel in the first place. As your other answerers have commented we are only now just realizing the added cost of burning fossil fuels: Military to defend petroleum supply, carbon and other pollution emmissions, environmental degradation.

Answer 4

Your question makes no sense. Fossil fuels are used as... well, fuel! They aren't a solution, they're a fuel! Wood was used (and still is used in most of the world) to heat, cook, etc long before fossil fuels were ever made.

Inventions like the combustion engine were a primary basis for humankind to begin using fossil fuels for things like travel. Which lead to a burst in using fossil fuels for other things like heating and cooling.

I'd hardly call things like heat one of life's ills. Yes, when fossil fuels burn they release a lot of side products, (I'm not talking about carbon dioxide) which lead to things like smog and air pollution. Alternative energy sources like solar, wind and hydroelectricity are nothing new though. There are other reasons why these types of technologies are not more widespread though: they're expensive.

I agree that we're much too reliant on a finite fuel source and that we should really focus more on energy that's more sustainable, especially in a world where energy demands are only going to increase. But your question still makes no sense.

Answer 5

If you mean oil, which is a carbon product that is a constantly renewable fuel, it's not really a fossil fuel.

That description went out about 5 years ago, but since you're not a scientist you probably wouldn't have known that.

But to answer your question, global warming isn't caused by burning these fuels, so the only thing people need to get their head around is the truth. You've been hoodwinked by politicians who want to take away our freedoms.

Education would help you a lot.

Answer 6

One could say without stretching the imagination too much that without fossil fuel we would'nt have achieved the level of technology we have today. I dont think GW has anything to do with it. Simply provide a better fuel at a sufferable price that will power the economy we have today. "If you build it they will come." Or fossil fuels, being a finite energy source will run out and we will all be back in the stoneage.

Answer 7

no. the root cause is because too high demand on energy. And the fossil fuel is cheap and easy way to get it so far.

Answer 8

Is the root cause is fossil fuels, No its the trees not the roots

Answer 9

Exactly so. Before we give up 200 years of solutions we need to find new solutions. Before we give up fossil fuel we need to have other energy sources fully developed. We will have to do that anyway, because fossil fuel will run out in as little as 100 years.

Answer 10

Yeah that's probably part of it. It's also that fossil fuels are such cheap and easy solutions. You just drive up to one of the millions of gas stations around the world, refuel your car in a minute, and speed off. Or at home you just plug your appliance in and flip the switch and you're ready to go. You don't even need to see the coal burning power plant that's supplying your electricity, or the gasoline in your car's tank.

Fossil fuels have made our lives easy, and the financial cost has been minimal compared to the advances they've allowed. Unfortunately, the environmental cost is turning out to be much larger than we thought.