what are they? how are they bad ? how can we change?
Fossil fuels are the main source of energy to run this world , these fossil fuels are 3 gas-oil and coal which were formed millions years ago and they are found as raw materials and are found deep underground . coal was formed by dead trees and gas-oil was formed by dead marine organisms . from all of them coil is the most contaminating and expensive , the actual coal is cheap but what makes expensive is the transportation of it because is extremely heavy , firs is extracted from the mines then loaded with trucs into large ships that will cross the ocean and disembark in specific countries then the coal is loaded into trains, and finally the raw material reaches the electricity power plant , the coal is burned and the steam is used to spin a turbine which is used to make electricity. In the other hand oil is the most expensive fossil fuel out of the 3 and is also hard to extract because there are only some specific places in the world where we can extract it from , like russia-saudi arabia-canada-etc and those oil reserves can be found on land or on the ocean , which can cause a lot of trouble because if the extraction is not precise there will be a leak of oil into the ocean that would kill its wildlife and contaminate it , but once extracted it is taken to power plants and like coal is burned until it makes steam witch spins a turbine creating electricity , but we also use oil for transportation . and finally gas , it is extracted by drilling vertically into the earth until it reaches a gas reserve and like oil there are only some specific countries that have them , after being extracted it's burned , creates steam spins a turbine and creates electricity.
As Well as being incredibly useful for humans by making electricity , helping with transportation , being one of the most important parts of the world economy , etc.. . fossil fuels are also one of our biggest mistakes because they are one of the biggest pollutants for earth because when factories turn oil into electricity one of the processes is to burn the petroleum and create steam to spin a turbine but the factories can't keep the remaining carbon dioxide so they just get rid of it by exposing it to the atmosphere creating acid rain and continuing the greenhouse effect , coal is also a really dirty pollutant and it contributes to the greenhouse effect and this fossil fuel is really similar to how oil contaminates the atmosphere because when burnt it releases a very pollutant gas called methane which is one also the same gas that cows expose to the atmosphere , and gas also when burned releases contaminating gases .
The results of exposing this dangerous gases to our earth are catastrophic , as the gases are released from factories they spread through the atmosphere and trap heat in the atmosphere making large areas of glaciers in the north and south pole met , altern the natural order of things like changing the temperature of the weather making essential food crops to not grow , because the weather has changed the wild life will be affected the best thing that can happen is that the species is going to realise that the temperature of the weather has changed they will adapt to their new environment or they could start migrating to different countries with the weather that they require but in the worst case scenario certain species that cannot adapt to their new environment / migrate or its to late for them to do so will probably become extinct.
The fact that fossil fuels are one of the biggest pollutants is not a joke there are also other aspects that affect climate change like the deforestation of forests , ocean pollution , cattle ranching, etc.. , and just by saying these anyone would feel that the cause of reducing the level of pollutants is impossible but they are wrong because there is still a chance that we can change the course of how things are going , in this piece of information i focused on fossil fuels - how are they formed and the effects of using them , as you now know the steps of elaboration to convert these materials to electricity consists of first burning them so they make steam to spin a turbine and then create electricity but the factorie can't keep the remaining steam so they expose it to the atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect that consists of trapping all the toxic gases like ethanol and carbon dioxide and the creating clouds that later on produce acid rain or just trapping all the gases making the temperature off the earth hat up and causing wildlife disappear , melting glaciers in the poles , etc.. .
But now humanity has found other ways to make electricity by using renewable sources for example air, natural heat , the oceans , etc.. , one of the most common ways that countries are now producing electricity for themselves is by using wind power , this method basically consists in creating giant “windmill farms “ in specific places that are windy for example the ocean , highlands , etc .. they are most commonly placed in the ocean because it doesn't disturb people or transport is really effective and clean but in every good thing there are bad parts , a big problem is that it only works when is windi so the production of electricity depends highly on the weather and it also doesn't work when is too windy because there is a possibility that the giant turbine will break , and some people say that ruin the view of the natural environment of the ocean . Another way to make clean thelecticity is tby using a natural heat source , it may be the ultraviolet rays of the sun or the heat of the mantle inside the earth , solar energy as the name says uses the heat of the sun to create electricity ,these solar panels work by absorbing the heat of the sun by using photovoltaic cells (that are inside the solar panel) to generate a direct current and then converting it to electricity , a very good thing about using solar panels is that is accessible to everyone because the are not so big and they could be installed in the roof of houses , it will be a big step for humanity if every single house had a solar panel to generate their own electricity to do basic things like take a shower cook a meal , do work , etc .. but these solar panels only function in the day , it does not matter if is cloudy , raining, snowing, but they do not work at night because they need the unic heat from the sun to work and even if the moon shines bright and is a clear night sky the moon does not produce heat also another problem is that for some people these panels are not aesthetically pleasing and they are also quite expensive . another clean energy making form is by using the natural heat from the core of the earth and this method is called geothermal energy , geothermal power plant makes its electricity by using the accumulated steam or hot water reservoirs underground and then the heat is used to spin a turbine to make electricity , this a really effective way to make electricity but there are many disadvantages about using this method , it is really expensive , mostly because the material needed to make the extraction of the steam from inside the earth is difficult to make and even more difficult to get , there is also a high possibility that when the steam or hot water is extracted some other gases that are found in abundance inside the earth will become exposed to the surface and atmosphere , there is also a low but still very real possibility of surface instability in other words the artificial making of earthquakes this has only happened a few times in really a really low magnitude that is barely considered an earthquake but if the extraction of the steam in a precise location will happen there will be a possibility of a large mass earthquake , and the last point is that there are only a few spots in the world where these reservoirs of hot water of steam are found , most of them are found in the USA and in a few other places in the world . And finally the use of the oceans to make electricity , there are two ways tidal power or wave power,tidal power or energy consists in using the power obtained from tides to make electricity , the process of this technique is quite similar to wind power , it consists of a underwater turbine placed in specific locations with high tidal movements , they capture the kinetic movement that the tides produce to create electricity this method is not so common but it has a promising future to make cleaner electricity but as this knew method has recently reached the market the unic turbines are incredibly expensive and also very difficult to maintain because even is the tides are predictable what they brig isn't , the ocean is full of wildlife and these potent turbines interrupt the natural environment of it and in consequence all kinds and quantities of fish are killed by these turbines and all kinds of seaweed get trapped in between the turbine making its constal rotating movement slower or even make the turbine stop , also they only work during tidal surges so they only function 10 a day . Another way of making electricity by using the ocean is wave power , these renewable form of making electricity is basically the capture of ocean wind waves to generate electricity , the mechanism of this technique consists in capturing surface waves of from pressure fluctuations from below the surface this form of making clean electricity is the most effective and it is proved that will solar power produces 150 watts per square meter wave power can make an approximate of 30.000 watts per meter square but like tidal power the technology to make wave power is really expensive . There is also another popular renewable energy producer that uses water energy to create electricity , and it is called Hydro energy , this method consists of building a dam that creates reservoir that is used to control the flow of the water that pases through a turvine that is designed to use the kinetic energy to spin and create a clean current of electricity , this method to create clean electricity is common , effective and aesthetically pleasing to some people but as all the methods hydro power has its own disadvantages , one of the biggest disadvantages is that it affects the natural order and environment of the river that they used to build a dam affecting most of the wildlife in it by forcing them to find another place to live , there is a high risk of local towns that live downstream to get flooded in the rainy season , the dam could easily collapse if the pressure of the water is not controlled , it is ridiculously expensive to build a dam mostly because of the quantity of materials needed and the worst disadvantage is the emission of methane that the rotting varieties of seaweed in the bottom of the reservoir emmyt , it is the worst disadvantage because the hole point of investing thousands on materials and exposing towns to the risk of extreme flooding is to create a way to generate clean electricity and without contributing to climate change .
There are also many more ways to generate clean electricity but i just realised the most important and effective ones , but the hole point of the creation of these new methods is to stop the unnecessary use of fossil fuels that do no more but harm to the atmosphere and to the planet itself , and main aim is for people to change their current and what they call normal way of life that just pollutes and kills the earth and adapt to this new reality , they can do this by recycling , change their petrol car to a hybrid electricity mode , walk more , buy more eco friendly things , etc.. so one day humanity can change the course of how we think life was and create a better world.