Environmental Effects of Fossil Fuels Essay

The biggest concern associated with coal energy is the affect it has on the environment. It is a dirty fuel that pollutes the air, water and land. Burning coal releases harmful waste such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide,

In this paper, we focus on using fossil fuels causing climate change. Fossil fuels are fuels formed natural resources such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, which are the most widely used fuel and industrial chemicals in the world. Since industrial revolution, fossil fuels bring a very great quantity convenience and technological products. So we can use cars, planes and all modern products. But fossil fuels cause climate change at the same time. Greenhouse gas, nitrous oxides and a great deal of harmful gas which are from fossil fuels are causing serious environmental problems. Therefore we need to be concerned about the problems caused by fossil fuels and the solutions.

The article, “Coal and the Environment”, provides the readers will and understanding of how coal works and also how it is dangerous to our environment. Coal on its own is not dangerous to the environment but once the coal is burned, then pollutants are released into the air causing for less clean air. The government has taken a stand on the industries polluting the air we breathe in everyday with the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These two acts put restrictions on industries that allow for safer and cleaner air.

To begin, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was a man-made environmental disaster that occurred in 1989. On March 24, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 barrels of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska (Piatt, Lensick, Butler, Kendziorek & Nysewander, 1990). Eventually, this oil spread across 30,000 km² of water, damaging ecosystems and marine life along the way (Piatt, 1990). Evidently, this oil spill is considered to be one of the most destructive man-made environmental disasters in history (Dimdam, 2013).

Oil spills are notorious environmental hazards. Spills are costly to clean up, and they impact hundreds of

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to

2005). It’s a sticky substance, when it gets on something it acts like a glue. With such a massive concentration of oil, which was about 11 million gallons of oil, it had a huge effect on marine life and plants. Oil has herbicides, which are chemicals that kill plants and when they’re exposed to such a huge amount of it, it can affect a big area of plants on the shoreline and underwater. Oil has lower density than water, it will float when it’s mixed with it. It blocks sunlight and air from reaching the underwater pants. It does not allow plants to photosynthesize. Without photosynthesis, plants aren’t able grow or get oxygen so they will end up dying (Effect of oil spills on aquatic plants 2014). Oil affects the way most marine animals breathe and grow and can leave a sub lethal effect on them without killing them (How does oil impact marine life? 2014). Such a chemical like oil affects the way on how birds and marine life do in cold water like keeping a certain temperature. The study of chemical risks, or toxicology shows that without this ability to maintain a certain temperature they will die from hyperthermia. Oil is like a poison to marine life, and if it doesn’t kill the animal it leaves long lasting effects on them. With the huge dose most of these animals took of the oil, it led to a lot of deaths. This oil spill showed a lot of persistence because even after 30 years, the water was still contaminated with

This one’s a given. Whenever a tanker springs a leak in rough seas or an oil rig has a faulty valve, a media frenzy soon follows. Images of black goop covering large swaths of ocean and washing up on once-pristine beaches can seem apocalyptic. However, according to WWF, while oil spills do cause huge damage to the environment, they are only responsible for 12% of the oil entering the ocean each year. A much larger proportion actually comes from our cities, through untreated sewage, polluted rivers, and surface runoff.

Offshore drilling has a possibility of oil spills, effects on aquatic life and pollution in the ocean. Worst oil spill in history was that of sea island, Kuwait on Jan 25, 1991 and the most recent oil spill was that of the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 (also known as a Deepwater Horizon oil spill). This spill of 2010 brought many effects such as it killed 11 people, brought pollution and damage to animal life, and hit Gulf coast fisheries very hard. After 3 years of oil spill i.e. on 2013, the research found that the oil was still present in the water, but mash grasses are growing back, and oil eating microbes did better in warm water. Also, the oil spill of 1989 ( Exxon Valdez oil spill) while transporting oil out of Alaska was a major disaster which led to Congress to take action. The oil pollution act (OPA) of 1990 was then brought up to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil spills. This act formulated a law that ships must have double-hull tankers by 2015, the Coast Guard monitors tanker lanes should be eight miles bigger than it is, and emergency equipment should be kept ready at points along the routes. After the enactment of the OPA 1990, now there is $100

Consider the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and crude oil transportation that is currently in place from the North Slope to the Valdez Marine Terminal. Many oil spills have occurred since it began transportation in 1977 such as the one that occurred in 2006 that went undetected for days resulting in 267,000 gallons of crude oil escaping into the environment (Barringer, 2006). Also, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Despite the positive development of oil and gas industry in this last decade, there is something more valuable have been put on the line. The environment needs to pay for every single mistake made by the human. One of the greatest mistakes in humankind history is an oceanic oil spill. It has become a major environmental problem that the world is facing right now. History has shown how this problem could go. From the first major commercial spill of 1967 in the United Kingdom, up to the most recent one, at BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig, that leaked thousands barrel of oil into the Gulf of Mexico since April 2010. Most large-scale oil spills have been disastrous and the marine wildlife is still recovering. Hence, the tension for a better cleanup technology increases.

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, mankind has increasingly become reliant on fossil fuels such as oil for energy. Oil fuels our car, warms our homes, generates our electricity, and creates a myriad of goods including everything that contains plastic. In our global economy, oil must be transported great distances to reach markets throughout the world. With seemingly increasing frequency, these journeys sometimes end in accidents that result in oil being spilled into the ocean. The most devastating oil spill, The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, occurred on April twentieth of this year.

Oil spills are large pools of oil spread across a large area on top of the surface of an ocean but can also lead to multiple harmful effects to an ecosystem to marine animals present in the area .Multiple variables can lead to an oil spill, some oil spills can happen by outdated equipment or poor weather conditions while others can be caused by mistakes or ignorance of the workers like with the Exxon Valdez in March 1984 .Oil spills that occur near shore can be hazardous areas for aquatic and marine animals present in the area,When oil is ingested by marine animals it can have long term effects on the animal's health and can temporarily cause the inability for the animal to float above water and to keep warm which is vital for these animals

Oil, also known as petroleum, is an insoluble and non-renewable sources of energy used by a significant amount of people all around the world. According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. Petroleum Consumption in 2001 mostly consist of gasoline (used to fuel cars), heating oil (used to heat buildings), diesel fuel, propane, residual fuel oil (powering factories, fueling large ships, and making electricity), and items that we come across every day (such as clothing, furnitures, kitchen items, cars, and even food). Although oil plays an important role in the human society, that does not prevent it from not causing problems. The environmental issue we will be discussing relates to oil spills, which is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment as a result of human activity. Every year, an innumerable number of spills occur and cause a massive ecological harm. America’s oil and gas industry averaged at least 20 spills per day in 2013. I believe that the prevention of such spills is essential for the wellbeing of all living specie on Earth. Companies must care for our environment and protect all living animals, plants, and human, since the petroleum’s chemical constituents are poisonous. The main reason why I chose to talk about oil spills is because both the immediate and long-term damage costs us lives, properties, and public natural resources; and that will have an economic impact all around the world.

Coal is a solid fossil fuel which are made of layers of dead trees and plants which have decomposed for years and have been compressed and heated, the pressure of all of all the layers of mud, rock, sand on top of this extracts all the water and oxygen from the carbon substance to form the solid carbon enriched substance which is known as coal, depending on the amount of time they are buried the coal gets richer in carbon the longer it's buried. By combusting coal with oxygen the byproducts produced are nitrogen gas and sulfur gas these byproducts and carbon dioxide released into the air are harmful as it is the cause of climate change. While oil is a