There are three main types of fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels were formed millions of years before the dinosaurs. Prehistoric plants form the basis of the different types of fossil fuels. Oil and gas for instance were formed from plants that lived in water and were buried under oceans and rivers. Over millions of years sediments built up and compressed them down. Thick liquid we call oil formed first and in the deeper hotter areas natural gas was formed. Around 300 million years ago some of the oil and gas began working their way back up to surface areas through the earth's crust until they ran into geological formations called cap rocks. It is under these cap rocks most oil and natural gas is found today. Different types of fossil fuels depend not only on the biological material, but conditions it encountered as it decomposed. Some things that effect fossil fuel bearing depends on how long the material was buried, the environmental conditions that existed millions of years ago, and the temperature and pressure applied from the sediment that covered them. Coal was formed, for instance with plants from primordial swamps ( for more info see US department of Energy, or fossil.energy.gov)
We are currently using up the reserves of these fossil fuels formed millions of years ago. The Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc.org) reports with others that American's currently are using about 1/4 of the world's oil even though we produce only about 2%.The California energy commission reports that fossil fuels should be considered as a finite energy resource, and will at some point be tapped out, it will cost more to extract. The costs for using these types of resources seems to be increasing.
Geologists often find it is hard to predict and accurately forecast rates of remaining oil. Geology.uprm.edu predicts that " It is likely that conventional oil accumulations will be in decline from conventional oil accumulations before the middle of the century (2000)". Because oil is a geological event and some places may not have been discovered, geologists use analysis and probabilistic methodology to estimate the amount of recoverable oil. About three million barrels may be left. Of this amount over 1/2 is already being produced or booked as reserves. For more see Global Petroleum Resources- A view to the Future. (geology.uprm.edu)
Fossil fuels that are found throughout the world may belong already to different countries. Geogolists report that areas that might contain the greatest volumes of undiscovered oil include: The Middle East, Western Siberia, the Caspin region, The Niger and Congo deltas. Much of the undiscovered oil may lie off shore which may be off the coasts of countries that claim ocean provinces. This oil might be outside of provinces of US, former Soviet Union, Middle East, and North Africa. The Artic basin may have undiscovered petroleum resources.
One must often consider a variety of issues that surround energy usage such as economics, political conditions, and rate of usage. In 2009 the US imported about 52% of it's crude oil. Some oil is used for energy supplies to run automobiles, and for other energy uses like heating homes and running appliances. Petroleum according to ( how stuff works. com/fuel) is the name for the raw product that comes out of the ground, It must then be refined to finally be used as used in gasoline and further refined for uses in many common household products and for petrochemical uses.
A lot of common household products depend on fossil fuels.Plastic is certainly a big one others include : food preservatives, and dyes, candles, balloons, some crayons, nail polish, deodorant, insect repellents, artificial fertilizers, pesticides, ammonia, paint, shampoos, cosmetics, soap- less detergents, synthetic clothing materials like nylon, polyester, asphalt and so many other products. Ranken Energy Corporation states that if one were to consider a 42 gallon barrel of oil, it can be thought to create 19.4 gallons of gas, the rest is usually refined more to be used to create common household items. For a more complete list of common household products see Ranken-energy.com
If one uses Electricity they are not immune from using fossil fuels to generate electricity. The US Energy Information Administration (eia.doe.gov/electricity) states that various sources are used to generate electricity the most common being some 70% coming from fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas.
The US Department of Energy says that the usage of fossil fuels can emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air besides other significant chemical emissions. The levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere occurs somewhat naturally. Lower levels of CO2 were once better able to be balanced/ regulated by natural processes such as plant photosynthesis.
The gap between emissions and natural absorption rate has been increasing due to large scale advancing world wide industrialization which had it's beginnings some 150 years ago.
why it is good to educate ourselves on these topics see : Ecology in Times of Scarcity, by John Day, Charles Hall and others. If interested in this publication, See the Journal Bioscience, April 2009, Volume 59, Issue 4. One can also explore Greenhouse effects, and natural earth cycles to see how chemicals build up or recycle through different major earth systems.
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