The Overreliance on Fossil Fuels
The three major hydrocarbon fuels are coal, crude oil/petroleum and natural gas (International Energy Agency 8-82). The three fuels differ markedly in length of historical exploitation and the modern inventions and conveniences they triggered.
Both coal and crude oil are referred to as fossil fuels because they are formed from the remains of plant and animal life (though the latter is a subject of debate) that teemed throughout the swamps covering much of the earth around 100 to 400 million years ago. When organic matter died but was covered up by layers of sediment in fairly short order, the decay process was interrupted and solar energy converted by photosynthesis was effectively trapped as long hydrocarbon chains. As layers of soil and water accumulated over the eons, pressure and heat built up to the point of converting organic matter into coal and oil. Coal deposits range from veins as thin as a centimeter and up to seven feet thick (The Need Project 16-19). Given the heavy concentrations of methane and ethane in natural gas, geologists speculate that much of the earth’s deposits were formed from compression and heating of organic matter. Gas accumulates on top of layers of permeable, oil-bearing rock owing to partial decay of the organic matter that forms crude oil and coal. Presence alongside coal deposits suggests that natural gas was mostly formed around the same time as Carboniferous coal: from 286 to 360 million years ago. For gas deposits to remain in place and not escape to the earth’s atmosphere, the oil-bearing “dome” of rock must be capped by a layer of nonporous rock
Mankind has used shallow deposits of asphalt and heavy petroleum for at least 4,000 years. By comparison, coal has been around just two millennia. Records of the Roman Empire contained reports of regular mining in what was then Britannia, chiefly to heat the hot public baths of which the Roman nobility was so fond. Nonetheless, coal has actually enjoyed wider use than petroleum far longer principally because coal deposits are abundant, many were found near the surface and coal could b eused for burning or cooking just like wood. In contrast, the earliest recorded (by Herodotus) exploitation of crude deposits were of shallow-lying tar and heavy distillates which the Mesopotamians used in constructing Babylon, in lighting and medicine (E. Britannica).
Being much the superior alternative to wood for domestic heating and the steam engines that powered trains and factories from the dawn of the Industrial Age, coal remains popular for metal smelting and power generation to this day (The Need Project 16-19) despite its very visible drawback of dense atmospheric pollution from soot effluents.
The modernizing impact of crude oil had to await bringing the viscous liquid to the surface so it could be “cracked” or separated in oil refineries into gasoline, lubricants and the kerosene that became aviation fuel. Exploration for underground deposits, drilling for these and pumping crude to the surface commenced in the second half of the 19th century. By the early years of the 20th century, the motor car and the airplane had been invented. Civilization (and the earth’s atmosphere) were never the same again.
Natural gas was the last to be exploited. Previously, the gas that reached the surface alongside crude oil was simply flared off or burned. Eventually, the unstoppable demand for energy propelled the construction of pressurized-tank ships and long pipelines running from gas-surplus nations like Russia to the energy-deficient countries in the rest of Europe or from Iran and Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan. Others, like Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, opted to build concentrations of energy-intensive industries (e.g. aluminum smelting) near their gas fields.
Biological and environmental Impacts
Perhaps the two best-publicized biological effects of fossil fuel production and burning are the cases of colliers and residents around coal-burning power plants or factories. In the former case, coal mine workers, coal trimmers (those who load and store coal), and workers in factories producing carbon black develop what is commonly termed ‘black lung disease’ from sustained inhalation of coal dust. Medically, this is termed “coal workers’ pneumoconiosis” which can present as progressive massive fibrosis and heightens the risk emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
England in Dickensian times was a vivid example of residents around coal-burning establishments suffering a variety of respiratory diseases from the constant cloud of exhaust particulates in the air. While the industrialized countries have done a great deal to reduce their dependence on coal and use electrostatic scrubbers to minimize effluents from coal-using power plants, India and China remain contemporary examples of the biological effects from using this cheap fossil fuel. This was vividly demonstrated when China closed down dozens of coal-burning plants proximate to the 2008 Beijing Olympics competition sites many months before the event in a bid to protect the world’s athletes. By the time the Olympics opened, a pall of smog remained visible around the city and the local Chinese knew better than to stop wearing face masks.
Works Cited
Barry, J.P., Seibel, B.A., Drazen, J.C., Tamburri, M.N., Buck, K.R., Lovera, C., Kuhnz, L., Peltzer, E.T., Osborn, K., Whaling, P.J., Walz, P., & Brewer, P.G. Deep-sea Field Experiments on the Biological Impacts of Direct Deep-Sea CO2 Injection. Proceedings of the Second Conference on Carbon Sequestration, Alexandria, VA, 2003.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Petroleum. 11th Ed. 1911.
International Energy Agency. Key World Energy Statistics. Paris, France: IEA, 2007.
McNeil, B., Matear, R.J., Key, R.M., Bullister, J.L., & Sarmiento, J.L. “Anthropogenic CO2 Uptake by the Ocean Based on the Global Chlorofluorocarbon Data Set.” Science 299: 235-239.
The Need Project. Secondary Energy Infobook. Manassas, VA: The Need Project, 2008: 16-19.
Riva, Jr., J. P. The Distribution of the World’s Natural Gas Reserves and Resources. Washington: National Council for Science and the Environment/Congressional Research Service. 1995. Web.