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Paying for Pathosis
Imagine spending money on diseases that can kill. Countries around the world are using more and more fossil fuels every day. Many people think- fossil fuels can’t be that bad, we’ve used them for decades! Nevertheless, fossil fuels are much more harmful then they seem. This energy source can cause damage to human health, harm to the environment, and a downfall to the future of energy. However, there is another source of energy commonly overlooked.
Starting off, these fossil fuels are affecting human health. With fossil fuels on the rise, the chances of cancer, asthma, and other diseases are increasing. The burning of fossil fuels by humans is the largest source of emissions of carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases are
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Environmental pollution is one of the major disadvantages of fossil fuels.
It is known to many that carbon dioxide is the primary gas responsible for global warming. Amanda MacMillan states that “Over the past 50 years, the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history.” These higher temperatures are causing the melting of glaciers, rising sea level, disruption of habitats, and infectious diseases due to the rise of pollen. With many countries choosing to use fossil fuels instead of healthier alternatives such as solar, wind, wave, and thermal energy, the carbon dioxide emissions are on the rise and the Earth’s health is headed downhill. Finally, fossil fuels may cause the future of energy to collapse. Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable source of energy. That means that when all fossil fuels are gone, they will not be attainable again. Since fossil fuels are the world’s main source of energy, when they are gone many homes, factories, stores, and other places will be shut down. Many people say that fossil fuels are a great source of energy. They are reliable and can get the job done. “The United States gets 81% of its total energy from oil, coal, and natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels. We depend on those fuels to heat our homes, run our vehicles, power industry and manufacturing, and provide us with electricity.” (needtoknow.nas.edu) Even though
Fossil fuels are very limited and they are used a lot. Fossil fuels are also very harmful to nature. Carbon emissions, that are produced from the use of fossil fuels, affects the globe
From the home to factories, families and industries are reliant on the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels to feed the needs of the everyday human. Fossil fuels are the main source of energy over clean, renewable sources such as the use of wind, solar energy, and water to power our homes, schools, and industries. In fact, about 85% of energy use comes from fossils fuels. The main reason being that using fossil fuels is cheaper than wind and solar energy. “For nearly two centuries, fossil fuels have been the cheapest source of energy” and widely abundant (Marburger, A global framework: international aspects of climate change). However, overtime fossil fuels will disappear due to the lack of time to replenish itself with the human races rapid use of it. Despite its current status of availability, there are many controversial issue in using fossil fuels; the most prominent issue being that it is the cause of rapid climate
Climate change is a major issue that is only going to get worse. Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns. It has become more apparent since the mid to late 20th century onwards and is attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Climate change has been an important issue for decades that has effects on the environment and people of the world with the end result potentially being catastrophic. Although many believe that prolific use of fossil fuels is the direct cause of climate change, there are many more underlying causes including population expansion as well as irresponsible consumption of natural resources that have
Most climate scientists agree that the main cause of global climate change is the human expansion of the greenhouse effect. This is the global warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space (climate.nasa.gov). The main gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (climate.nasa.gov). Human activities are changing the natural greenhouse effect. The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (climate.nasa.gov). Carbon dioxide levels have increased from 280 parts per million to 379 parts per million in the last 150 years due to human act...
The effects of using fossil fuels are starker than their timelines. Humans release approximately two billion metric tons of pollution annually, mostly from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas; this pollution is destroying our environment and the ozone layer. Ozone and smog damage forests, crops, and other plant life, and reduces visibility. Other pollutants have the same
The three fossil fuels- coal, crude oil, and gas slowly formed over millions of years. These days, we use fossil fuels to power everything- homes, buildings, cars, computers, lights, etc. However, fossil fuels deposits will run out soon, which is a huge problem. Extracting, transporting, and burning fossil fuels are dangerous. There are also many negative biological and environmental impacts that result from the use of fossil fuels, such as ocean acidification, groundwater contamination, land subsidence, oil spills, and global warming. Therefore, we should be trying to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and explore alternative energy sources such as wind energy, hydroelectricity, and solar energy instead. Our world depends on fossil fuels, but they can also hurt us. Fossil fuels are both a blessing and a curse.
Furthermore, in 2000, the Harvard School of Public Health looked at the human health effects from two fossil-fuel-fired power plants in Massachusetts. It estimates that the air pollution from the plants causes:159 premature deaths, 1,710 emergency room visits, 43,300 asthma attacks each year (Levy). Without a doubt, burning fossil fuels increases CO2 levels in the atmosphere and causes an increase in atmospheric and ocean temperatures, they also present an endangerment to living organisms. Strangely enough, wind is a form of solar energy.
The most destructive human contribution to climate change is fossil fuels combustion, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons levels in the atmosphere cause an imbalance in the earth’s energy. This is because the gases alter solar radiation and thermal radiation which regulate the earth’s energy. Research indicates that anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the increased global warming over the last fifty years. 57 % of the carbon dioxide emitted is absorbed into the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed into the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most central greenhouse gas that is associated with global warming (Eby, Zickfield, Montenegro, Archer, Meissner, & Weaver,
In talking about global warming, we need to learn what causes the greenhouse effect. Rays from the sun are taken up and absorbed by water vapor that is natural in the atmosphere. The United States emits the largest man made greenhouse gases in the world. As Americans we must realize the responsibility to reduce the emissions. (Gore, Albert) Water Vapor is eighty percent of greenhouse warming. The last twenty percent results from other gases that are in very little amounts. A huge absorber of the sun’s heat rays is carbon dioxide. Us as humans release a lot of carbon dioxide. When fossil fuels are burned, they release big amounts of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is on the increase in our atmosphere due to car emissions. Approximately eighty percent of CO2 increases because of man’s use of fossil fuels. When there is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere the more sun rays are absorbed. In result to this happening this will cause the earth and the earths atmosphere to warm. When the earth is warming, water temperatures will start to get warmer. Oceans and lakes will get warmer in result f...
Global heating and cooling has occurred on a cycle for millennia, however in the past thirty years the increased use of energy and fuels by humans has drastically changed this natural occurrence (Juerg, 2007). The largest cause of this warming is the release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide levels are twenty-five percent higher than they were in 1957 (UCS, 2013). This seemingly insignificant change has caused a myriad of negative effects. The endangerment of species, rising sea levels, and increased natural disasters are just a few examples of change brought about by global warming (Juerg, 2007).
The burning of fossil fuels has greatly harmed our environment and is a leading cause as to why climate change has become such a threat to our way of living. In May of 2013, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million, an increase of more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This could cause the Arctic Ocean to be nearly ice-free during the summer by 2020(Overland and Wang, 2013).
These fuels include coal, oil products such as gasoline, and natural gas. Use of these fuels has a number of harmful health and environmental effects. According to the World Health Organization, outdoor air pollution, most of it from burning fossil fuels, especially coal kills at least 800,000 people each year and causes health problems for tens of millions of others. Technology is available to reduce such air pollution, but using it is costly and results in higher fuel
Fossil fuels are energy that is in the form of coal, oil, or natural gas that comes from organisms from millions of years ago. The cycle to create fossil fuels takes millions of years to form and is therefore considered a nonrenewable resource of energy. Fossil fuels have been the primary source of energy for man ever since the age of machines, but one of “the main problem[s] with fossil fuels is that there is a limited amount of them” (Problem with Fossil Fuel). As countries become more developed, like the United States, they too will become more thirsty and dependent for fossil fuels. “In 2004, America spent approximately $270 billion to fufill its oil need.” and “90% of all transportation is fueled by oil” (Nakaya 10). With the global rate of fossil fuels going up it is inevitable that they are going to run out, forcing countries to choose an alternative energy source. The other huge problem with dependence on fossil fuels is the effect that the emissions have on the climate. Fossil fuels are made of carbon chains and in order for the reaction...
Scientists, economists, and policy makers all agree the world is facing a threat from climate warming. Climate warming is caused by excess greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are heat trapping gases. Human use of fossil fuels is a significant source of these gases. When we drive our cars, heat our homes with oil or natural gas, or use electricity from coal-fired power plants, we contribute to global warming. Including any loss of trees or forests also contributes, considering trees convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Fuels like coal, and oil that once were a fine innovation in creating energy are now rapidly deleting and one day will be gone forever; energy that won’t last is often referred to as non-renewable energy. Besides being set up to fail and become inefficient in the future, fossil fuel energy is not clean to use and poses several environmental complications. Coal, for instance is “the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Coal combustion not only produces sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides that contribute to acid rain and snow, it generates millions of tons of particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory diseases.” As with all usage of fossil fuels, it creates enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to greenhouse gas. Not only are fossil fuels dirty, they also pose as a security risk and unforgiving on the American wallet. (Saini)