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Fossil Fuel Folly

Essay by   •  December 4, 2010  •  1,082 Words (5 Pages)  •  1,173 Views

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The Fossil Fuel Folly

Background

The technology of the Industrial Revolution has allowed the mankind to increase the carrying capacity of humans on the earth. Subsequent to the Industrial Revolution, man has been polluting and abusing the surface of our planet daily. Opulent forests have been rapaciously felled and its rivers and oceans dangerously polluted. The earth’s already degraded soils work lifelessly to support soon to be destroyed crops. The earth’s delicate envelope of life, its atmosphere, contaminated with otherworldly bacteria. In bending the world to our implacable will we are also destroying it. Our material progress is achieved by passing on a wasteland to our children. If we hope to examine a cleaner life in the near future we must radically alter our ways of living. Fossil fuels, a deadly drug that has enchanted the inhabitants of earth and has caused them to become addicted, wrecks havoc on the unsuspecting public today. This “drug” is commonly used throughout the world in modes of transportation, the most common being automobiles. Over trillions of the fossil fuels are burned due to the usage of automobiles. These vehicles emit carbon monoxide along with dozens of other green house gases, which emulate the destruction of earth from the inside out. Though the destruction seems massive, we inhabitants have realized the problem and have charged toward the solution.

Alternative fuel, as it may seem, is the breath of fresh air that will greatly reduce harm towards the world and postpone the incineration of fossil fuels. Over the past centuries many resolutions have been made and much work has been done to reduce the usage of fossil fuels by automobiles. The world has benefited from the creation of biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, and natural gas for usage by cars. Millions of vehicles today roam the world with alternative fuel saving the burning of thousands of fossil fuels.

Present day

Preservation of fossil fuels with the usage of alternative fuel cars has benefited the world to a tremendous degree. Alternative fuel vehicles run on fuel other then the accustomed gasoline or diesel. For example electricity, natural gas, and even hydrogen cells are hot topics in the world of alternative fuel. Scientists across the world are working with diverse car manufacturers to create vehicles that will emit twenty to seventy percent less green house gases. If alternative fuel and vehicles are integrated together smoothly the creation would be automobiles that could save dozens of forests at a time.

In the early alternative fuel era, electricity was a very common source of energy. BEV’s or battery electric vehicles do not make use of the traditional internal combustion engine and function through the unique use of electric motors. These electric engines act efficiently, remain quiet, and offer the same acceleration to those of gasoline powered vehicles. Operation and maintenance is inexpensive and absolutely no emissions exit from the tailpipe. The biggest advantage this vehicle carries is its ability to use renewable electricity.

Like its renewable friend electricity, ethanol is also a very commonly used energy source to decrease fossil fuel use. Fermenting plants with high carbohydrates creates the liquid substance ethanol. Ethanol is a domestically produced renewable fuel that reduces fossil fuel usage, according to studies, by fifty to sixty percent. Ethanol also decreases carbon dioxide emissions by twenty to thirty percent. Ethanol is thought to be a future savior to end pollution due to its easy to create structure.

A very popular and affordable type of alternative fuel is natural gas. Natural gas is a natural fossil fuel found near oil deposits. This gas can either be compressed into CNG or can be liquefied to become LNG. Natural gas, already in use for other activities, reduces most emissions including carbon dioxide by approximately one third. The amount of natural gas in the planet far surpasses the amount of oil and so, is the least expensive of many alternative fuels. Natural gas has exploded onto the automobile scene and is used for various modes of transportation.

The non-renewable counterpart of natural gas is propane. Developed from natural gas, propane is the third most commonly used transportation fuel. Propane delivers comparable performance to gasoline vehicles and simultaneously reduces key emissions from a range of twenty to seventy percent and carbon

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