Burning of Fossil Fuels Could Lead to Harmful Pollution Levels

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Smokestacks from a wartime production plant, W...
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There are pictures in almost every media outlet that showcase the severity of air pollution. Pictures show the massive levels of smog in large urban areas and pictures of massive dark clouds that cover the sky. It may be hard to believe but the world did not always contain these types of images. There was a time when even the largest cities had bright blue skies and people could enjoy nature the way it was intended; with crystal blue skies and white puffy clouds. What could cause this type of change?

The change that occurred was the use of fossil fuels. The blue skies and white clouds existed in a time when people mainly traveled through a more natural means of transportation such as horse and buggy or horseback riding. These types of transportation had very little impact on the pollution levels. Over the years this natural form of transportation began to experience a massive decrease in use due to more favorable forms of modern transportation. It is this type of transportation that leads to higher pollution levels.

Modern forms of transportation includes the use of trains, planes and cars. In order to run properly these types of transportation use some form of fossil fuels to run. Some run on the burning of oil, while others might run off of the burning of coal. No matter what form of fossil fuels are being used to power the form of transportation, there is still some form of burning the fossil fuel. When the fossil fuel is burned off, chemicals and toxins are released into the atmosphere and end up creating those dark, dusty clouds that we see in pictures on the news.

While many people may wish for bluer skies and less pollution; it is our reliance upon fossil fuels that have caused what once was a reality to be a distant dream. Until our reliance on fossil fuels decreases, we will still have images of smog filled cities and dirty cloud filled skies.

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Enter The Science World from the Human Body to Fossil Fuels

October 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The world of science can be a lot of fun. Science lessons don’t just have to be learning about boring, non-relevant topics that you’ll probably never apply in your whole life. Think about math class, how many times after high school are you going to need to know how to determine the circumference of a circle? With science almost everything you learn is useful in the every day world.

Science classes cover a wide range of every day topics that can come in handy later on in life. One of those types of topics includes biology. Studying the human body can be very helpful and come in handy down the line. As humans we should have a better understanding of how our bodies work and what is going on inside. That way when we get sick or something happens we have a slight understanding of the body we live in. Biology also studies plant and animal life, which humans come in contact with daily and can be just as important as learning about the human body.

Another every topic that is covered in science classes is that of the fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are important to our every day living because they create the majority of the energy that we use to power our houses, cars and other areas of our life.

Science classes can cover how energy is created and made through the burning of fossil fuels. Understanding the process and what goes into creating energy can be very helpful for future projects. For example, you must first be able to understand how energy is created before you can think of other more energy efficient ways to light a house. People all over the world are looking for new ways to create energy, by entering the science field you’ll be able to experiment with ways of creating energy. Who knows you could be a world famous scientist for creating that new energy source!

Come join in the fun with the science world and see all the topics you can learn about!

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Recalling Fourth Grade Social Studies: Fossil Fuels

October 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
«Deep Sea Delta», boreplattform, her i Nordsjøen
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Unless you has an outstanding, wonderful teacher for your grade school education; the chances that you remember what you learned in second, third or fourth grade are fairly slim. Everyone will remember a few items here and there but the hours of studying and memorizing text books probably didn’t help in making you recall that information years later. Sometimes a random word or phrase will spark your memory and you’ll remember what you learned about that subject.

One of the subjects that most students probably don’t recall instantly is that of fossil fuels. Every school around the world takes a few weeks of their lesson plan and devotes their social studies or science classes to learning about fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are such an important part of our daily lives that it can be hard to image not having learned about them at all. We also have online courses these days, specially about fossil fuels.

By now if you are reading this, it has either jump started your brain and got you thinking about fossil fuels or you are sitting there thinking “fossil fuels I don’t remember any fossil fuels.” If you are one of the later few here’s a brief overview of fossil fuels and some brief information on them.

Fossil fuels are a substance such as coal, oil or gas that comes from the lower layers of the earth. These substances take millions of years to create and are created by the decomposition of plant and animal life. Since these substances take many years to develop before humans can use them; the only way to get access to them is by digging through the many layers of the earth. Fossil fuels can be gathered by drilling through the layers of soil and dirt or mining under the ground for coal or other solid substances. After mining these substances, they are processed and used by humans to create a form of energy that is used for electricity or heating elements.

While this over view isn’t as comprehensive as your school lessons; it will allow you to gain a bit of knowledge on fossil fuels and their uses.

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Fossil Fuels Changed The Caveman’s World

October 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Fossil Fuel sketch
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Cavemen. We credit them with having invented the wheel, drawing pictures on cave walls and even developing some of our modern habits and instincts that humans have today. These cavemen did all these amazing accomplishments without the dependence upon fossil fuels. They didn’t use coals, oils and other non-renewable substances that are known as fossil fuels. They relied upon a simpler lifestyle. Little did they know that the discovery of fossil fuel would change their life.

Life was simpler back in the caveman’s time. There were no cars, heating elements, electricity and other modern elements that depend upon fossil fuels to make them run or operate. These pre-historic people relied upon simple devices to help them survive. For example, instead of heating a cave with heaters; they used wood, fire and cloth to enclose the area. There was no need for fossil fuels. The thought to look for something that produced more energy just wasn’t there for the cavemen.

Fossil fuels are created by deposits that are buried deep into the earth. During the cavemen years there wasn’t the means or ability to drill, dig or mine into the earth to reach these elements. Even though the substances that are used to create fossil fuels were right under their feet, cavemen couldn’t know about it, even if they had the desire to look for it because they didn’t have the ability to access the substances so deep below the earth’s surface.

Once humans discovered fossil fuel substances, through drills, digging and mining and realized the potential that it held; the world changed. Cavemen lived in simple times and fossil fuels changed that. Soon locomotives would be built and run off of coal, airplanes would run off of oil and electricity would require the use of burning oil. The world quickly became reliant upon the use of fossil fuels and the energy that they created and surviving in the world become a little more complicated. No longer could humans just live inside an enclosed cave with some wood and fire. The world changed and the cavemen moved into a modern era.

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Are We Dependent on Fossil Fuels?

September 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Everywhere we turn we hear about going green or lessening our dependence on fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Many of us go along with the suggested changes such as taking public transit or turning to hybrid cars without much thought behind our need for oils and gas and where they come from. So what are we really dependent upon fossil fuels or is this all just some hype to get people to turn to other energy means? Let’s let the facts help you decide if we are dependent upon fossil fuels.

Over 30 years ago fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal only made up about 75% of the world’s source of energy. A current look into how much fossil fuel the world uses has estimated that it is over 90% of the world’s energy source. That is a major increase in the amount of fossil fuels that we use and depend on.

«Deep Sea Delta», boreplattform, her i Nordsjøen
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Why is the amount of fossil fuels usage so high?

Fossil fuels power almost everything in our daily lives. The cars and trucks we drive run on gas. The electronics and power that we use at home comes from the burning of oil to produce energy. There are very few elements of our daily lives that do not rely upon fossil fuels in some way. Even the food we eat relies upon fossil fuels because they were delivered to the store via a truck or car.

Over the years our dependence upon oil, gas or coal has become more and more severe. People are relying more and more upon cars to get around and our lives are becoming more dependent upon electronics, the Internet and other electronic means. Without fossil fuels we would be lost and our daily lives would be disrupted.

Seeing the numbers and the amount of dependence the world has upon fossil fuels, it can be hard to deny that we as humans are dependent on fossil fuels.

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