The Disadvantages and Advantages of Fossil Fuels

Alternative fuel sources have long been debated over and this debate continues into the second decade of the 21st century. The question is centered around using fossil fuels and finding other options. Many skeptics of the alternatives feel that there are many proponents lacking in alternatives, as opposed to all that fossil fuels have to offer, including the fact that other sources of energy are not as readily available and could be more costly to supply.

Fossil fuels are quite literally, the remains from prehistoric species; animals and plants, which throughout time, have been converted into simple hydrocarbons. Some of these are in solid and others in liquid form. They contain enormous amounts of energy within them and that is the reason that they have become the source behind most modern innovations from the 1900s through current times.

Oil: The Pros

Petroleum, also known as oil, is the second most common fossil fuel that is used in the world. Its processing converts it into petrol, also known as gasoline, which throughout the world is used as a fuel for automobiles, airplanes, and other motor operated machines. Petroleum has been rather abundant since the early 1900s, and has been an industry in which people throughout the world have gained great power and wealth, Gasoline is a very stable, yet combustible form of fuel, and thus into the 21st century, it remains the most popular form of petrol in the world. The processing of petroleum has gradually improved throughout time, making it easier to process and less expensive as well. The oil industry has created many jobs around the globe.

The Cons

There are a couple of huge problems with sticking with oil as one of the most commonly used sources of fuel. First is the fact that it is not environmentally friendly. It is a huge source of pollution and there is finite. The burning of something that is a pure hydrocarbon puts out an emission of water, carbon dioxide and heat all at the same time. The carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which traps solar radiation in the atmosphere of the earth. This is a tremendous contributor of global warming.

Because petrol and oil include additives in addition to the hydrocarbons, the automobiles that use the substance emit carbon monoxide, as well as other filthy gasses that make the air impure. Carbon monoxide contributes to health issues, including respiratory illnesses.

Another major problem with oil is that there is a finite amount that the earth has available. Many of the countries that supply oil to the western societies are in the middle eastern countries, which are not necessarily allies to the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and parts of western Europe. The demand for the product continues to increase while the supply continues to deplete. This increases the cost of the product as it continues.

Coal: The Pros

Coal is the oldest source of energy that man has every used. It is one of the most accessible types of fossil fuel that exists on the face of the earth. There is plenty of this resource that exists to this day, with no danger of running out of it within the next two and a half centuries. Coal is the most efficient, reliable and least expensive resource for the production of electrical energy.

The Cons

Although coal is abundant, easily accessed and efficient, there are many disadvantages as well. To start with, the extraction of coal has damaged the environment and continues to do so, by polluting and spoiling the land. Additionally, the people that mine the coal often become deathly ill, ingesting much of the particles into their respiratory systems. Second, coal is a hydrocarbon that lets off nitrogenous and sulfurous gasses into the earth's atmosphere, mixing with the vapor of water in the air, and results in acid rain. Acid rain is responsible for the contamination of water that humans and animals alike drink. Additionally plants suffer from acid rain.

Resources:

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c02a.html

http://www.mms.gov/alaska/kids/shorts/crude/crude.htm