Climate Change: What are fossil fuels, and how do they harm the planet?

• Published date: 06 November 2021

But what are fossil fuels exactly? How are they formed, and why are they so problematic?

Here is everything you need to know about fossil fuels.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

>

What are fossil fuels? How are fossil fuels formed?

The term fossil fuels refers to any kind of fuel that is formed from dead plant or animal remains, hence the term "fossil," which is also why they are known as hydrocarbon fuel. They become fuel after these dead life forms undergo anaerobic decomposition, which can take hundreds of millions of years.

These fuel sources are either mined, drilled for or otherwise extracted from underground. This can be done in a variety of ways depending on the specific type of fossil fuel in question.

What are examples of fossil fuels?

There are many different types of fossil fuels. However, the main ones are coal, oil (petroleum) and natural gas. These are extracted in a variety of ways and are used as fuel or converted into other forms of energy such as electricity. Of these main fossil fuels, petroleum is the most prominently used worldwide.

Many fossil fuels are also further refined or turned into other derivative products. Some of these refined fuels include propane, gasoline and kerosene, while fertilizers and plastics are common derivatives.

These fuel sources are not renewable, due to the nature of their formation. As such, they are considered nonrenewable resources.

Why are fossil fuels bad? How do fossil fuels affect global temperatures?

Fossil fuels are extremely damaging to the environment, and this is not just in their use. Extracting and transporting fossil fuels alone cause severe damage from the start. Mining and fracking (hydraulic fracturing of bedrock to facilitate oil and gas extraction) cause degradation to the land as massive swathes of land, such as entire mountaintops, can be blasted away to find coal or oil, and the land does not go back to normal, damaging the local ecosystem and ruining wildlife habitats.

Mining and fracking operations also severely impact the water, with acid runoff, rock dumping and oil spills causing severe damage and pollution to all bodies of water. Fracking in particular is also known to be able to contaminate local drinking water, and the produced wastewater can cause waterways to be polluted with heavy metals and radioactive materials.

The effects these pollutants have can be severely damaging...