Fossil fuels

Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas. They occur naturally in the Earth, and can be burned for energy. They currently provide over 80% of the world's energy, but at a heavy environmental cost.

Terminology

• Natural gas is sometimes referred to as just gas. Not to be confused with gasoline.
• Crude oil is also known as petroleum, and it can be refined into oil products such as gasoline and diesel.

Usage as an energy source

Climate change

Major problem

For the same amount of energy, coal emits more carbon than oil, and oil emits more carbon than natural gas.

73% of all greenhouse gas emissions are due to burning fossil fuels.

Burning fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change, due to the CO₂ it releases into the atmosphere.
And it's unlikely that carbon capture and storage would ever be able to store that much CO₂ in the ground.

Other pollution

Sometimes manageable

Burning fossil fuels releases more than just CO₂.

• Exhaust from cars and trucks
• Exhaust from coal power plants

These contain particles that are harmful to people and ecosystems.^{[ELABORATION needed]}

Mitigation

• Cars and trucks already have catalytic converters that eliminate some of this pollution - but not all of it.
• For coal power plants, newer technologies could avoid most of this pollution (but not the CO₂ that causes climate change).

Scarcity

Eventual problem

Oil reserves are expected to run out in less than a century, by most estimates. Coal and natural gas are similar. ^{[QUANTIFICATION needed]} Fossil fuels are not considered renewable(...)( despite being fossilized organic matter that was originally dead plants & animals ), because existing oil reserves took millions of years to form.

oil.reserves

1732 billion barrels oil

Global petroleum reserves

"Global proved oil reserves were 1732 billion barrels at the end of 2020 , down 2 billion barrels versus ‎‎2019. The global R/P ratio shows that oil reserves in 2020 accounted for over 50 years of current ‎production. OPEC holds 70.2% of global reserves."
Oil | Energy economics | Home - BP
www.bp.com › energy-economics › statistical-review-of-world-energy › oil

oil.production

4439 megatonnes/year

Crude oil production, worldwide

Using data from 2019.

Source: Key World Energy Statistics 2020 (IEA report)

world.population

8 billion

Number of people alive today, globally

https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population-dashboard
Last updated in 2023

Globally, per person, there is about 31 tonnes of oil (recoverable) somewhere in the Earth ['''] oil.reserves(tonnes per capita)(world.population)(calculation loading) . Average production is about 1.5 kg/day per person ['''] oil.production(kg/day per capita)(world.population)(calculation loading) . Rich countries consume a lot more, poor countries use a lot less.

Non-energy usage

• Fossil fuels are also used in making plastic, most of which is disposable.
• Other uses include making thousands of different chemicals. This together adds up to only a small fraction of fossil fuel consumption, and does not contribute significantly to climate change. ^{[QUANTIFICATION needed]}