Fossil fuels are the product of plants and animals that have died and have been reduced to hydrocarbons over the span of millions of years as a result of the pressure created by the earth.  Although it is a simplification, many people remember being taught in school about the dinosaurs dying, and somehow turning into gasoline when buried under the earth, and this gasoline heating our home and fueling our car.  For millions upon millions of years, the Earth has been bristling with new life, and all kinds of organisms.  This life has been comprised of both animals and plants, and was largely carbon based throughout time.  Dead and decaying life on earth was buried under the ground, and the tremendous pressure of the earth has managed to break it down, leaving hydrocarbons like coal, natural gas and oil behind.  All of these substances contain within them a great deal of potential energy that can be released in a host of different ways in order to produce both heat and power.  The modern industrial world was largely shaped by the discovery that this type of energy could be harnessed from these substances.

 The world is Going Green instead of burning fossil fuels - think about it…

Most of our power was derived from water-driven mill plants, and the burning of both peat and wood produced heat before the use of fossil fuels became widespread.  When petroleum was first discovered, it led to the development of combustion engines, and coal became the first major source for mass-produced energy for electricity.  Fossil fuels have been largely taken for granted over time, and they have also gone on to cause several major concerns which now must be addressed.  One of the largest concerns is that the source of fossil fuels is ultimately finite, so despite the fact that the current quantity is quite massive, the demand for fossil fuels will eventually exceed the supply that we have.  There is also a very real possibility that fossil fuels may be gone all together at some point in the future.  Another serious concern surrounding fossil fuels is the fact that fossil fuels are a very major source of carbon dioxide, which is one of the greenhouse gases that is being regularly accused of causing global warming and altering our climate.

There are many alternate power fuels that are currently being explored, including mineral-laden hydrocarbon tar sands.  These differ greatly from the normal fossil fuels because their origin is different, but they are also just as limited and as non-renewable as fossil fuels tend to be.  Fossil fuels have created the world that we are used to, but they clearly are not going to be a permanent answer for all of our heat and energy related problems.  The future of fossil fuels is simply that they will need to be replaced by alternative energy and fuels with a more renewable quality.