Originally Posted by
Dave Cutter
The term fossil fuels dates back to the 1500's and refers to the fact that many fossils are found in combination with the coal that it is found with. In other words.... the only fossil fuel is coal. HOWEVER Al Gore (wrongly) co-opted the term to petro fuels.
There are probably some fossilized animals and plants in crude oil too, but that's not really relevant to the meaning of the term 'fossil fuel.' Fossil fuels are fossilized biomass generated by sunlight and/or core heat. Living organisms (producers) convert light (or heat?) energy into chemical energy and the fuels store the energy. So if the fuels store up energy and carbon for millions of years but we burn them at a rate faster than they were/are formed, then they will run out before they recycle into new fuel.
Likewise, if you consider atmospheric CO2 as 'live' carbon, then coal, oil, and natural gas are sequestered forms of 'live' carbon, or you could call them 'fossilized' carbon. I.e. when something is fossilized, it's buried away from the biosphere where it can't affect living systems. Living systems need some energy to function, but too much energy has destructive effects. Every living system functions well with enough energy and breaks down with too much.
Al also decidedly placed environmentalism under the protection of a religion. So... I assume you are posting in a religious way. I respect your beliefs.
Don't be condescending.
But despite your religious belief that oil and coal are somehow the same thing. Specialized DNA testing has proven without any doubt that oil has NO connection to living organisms.
It's simple chemistry. If you want to bond a bunch of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms together in big molecules, you have to have enzymes to break apart other molecules in a way that allows you to piece the ions together into larger molecules with more potential energy than the starting ingredients. What non-living process converts lower energy molecules into higher energy molecules? Something has to build the hydrocarbons. And regardless of how they're made, releasing the stored energy goes faster than the processes of building it up so if you want to use fuel sustainably, you have to figure out how fast it's being produced and burn it at a slower rate.
Something else to consider is that the Earth's core is gradually cooling. When it solidifies, we will no longer have a magnetic field to protect the biosphere from cosmic rays and other harmful radiation. What's more, water will be able to seep down into the core, draining it from the surface. Earth is going to be much less inhabitable as this happens. So the more we drill and mine and allow water to seep deeper and deeper into the crust, the faster core heat is going to dissipate through the water. Fossil fuels kept underground may end up burning under pressure and help keep the core molten. Nature may have a reason for swallowing up biomass and compressing it underground besides to have people dig it up, burn it above ground, and fill the hole left with water.