Benefits from Fossil Fuel Use

Environmental Aspects of Fossil Fuel Use | Fossil Fuel in General

 Environmental Aspects of Fossil Fuel Use

Overview: Color

Pollution: Almost all fossil fuel use is by burning (or "combustion").

Burning produces waste products due to impurities in the fuel, especially
particulates and various gases such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides,
and volatile organic compounds. These waste products may affect our
environment or people, in harmful ways. We have gone to great lengths
to minimize the adverse effects of fossil fuel combustion, and continue to
make progress.

Then too, there are serious disagreements over whether some effects of
fossil fuel use are harmful at all. In some cases the amount of waste is so
small that the effect, if any, is difficult to detect. Mercury from coal
burning is an example.

Climate change: At the other extreme, all burning produces carbon

dioxide and water vapor as byproducts. This is because carbon is part of
what makes fossil fuel useful. But whether these byproducts are harmful,
or beneficial, is a matter of intense public debate. Some argue that they
are beneficial, because water and carbon dioxide are necessary for plant
life on earth, which is the basis for all life. Some people believe,
however, that our carbon dioxide emissions contribute to harmful global
warming and climate change, either now or in the future. Those who fear
climate change have proposed new government policies to drastically
reduce the use of fossil fuels. Those who do not fear climate change are
skeptical of these proposed policies. There is also great debate about the
science of climate change.
What is climate change?
Climate change can be defined as “statistically significant variation in either
the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended
period (Houghton et al, 2001)”. It is extremely important to define what can
be labelled as climate change, and what cannot.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCC) states that

climate change is variation in the climate, which can be attributed to human
activity, either directly or indirectly, and stresses that it must be in addition to
natural variation being experienced during the same time period. It is essential
to distinguish between “climate change” due to human activities and “climate
variability” due to natural causes. Only when we have a comprehensive
understanding of these factors can we
understand what effect humans are having
on the composition of the atmosphere
(UNFCC, 2002).

The potential problem of global warming

was officially recognised in 1988 when the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) established the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).

The IPCC was created with the intention of being an objective assessor of peer
reviewed published scientific literature. It’s fundamental objective to provide
a comprehensive, and impartial view, regarding the science and potential
impact of climate change due to anthropogenic factors, then to use this
information to look at options for potential adaptation and mitigation. This
lead to the creation of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, a result of the first IPCC Assessment Report, which
was completed in 1990.

The second IPCC assessment was published in 1995, and provided the basis for
the Kyoto Agreement, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. A third
IPCC report was completed in 2001, providing a comprehensive source of
reference, which has been used internationally as the basis for the science and
impact of global climate change. A fourth report is planned for 2007, and its
scope and outline are currently under discussion (http://www.ipcc.ch).
Climate change is one of the most serious environmental challenges facing the
world. Call for action. The need to address climate change is urgent.

Climate change is a change or variability in the average weather of a region. It

may be a positive change in some locations which may enhance the
productivity of a region, however, the rapidity of the change will cause major
disruption and there will be many more losers than gains if climate change
advances as predicted and as initial indications are now beginning to show.

To become fully engaged with the issue of climate change, it is important to

understand the science. Understanding how the circulation of the Earth's
carbon atoms drives climate change. Climate change is caused by the
persistent build-up of greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the
Earth's atmosphere. Climate change will also alter the availability of freshwater
and potable water resources. There are a handful of other, mainly industrial,
chemicals that also contribute to climate change. The scientific opinion on
climate change at the moment is that 'the warming that has occurred in the
past 50 years can be directly attributed to anthropogenic emissions.

Many people confuse the hole in the ozone layer with climate change. In fact,
the hole in the ozone layer, which is now beginning to mend itself due to the
efforts, and agreements, made worldwide for industry to limit and reduce
ozone depleting emissions, has nothing to do with climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol is the international plan to reduce climate change

pollution. But climate change is about much more than perceptions of scientific
certainty or uncertainty.

For example, water vapor is not typically considered part of the climate change
problem, although larger amounts of water vapour are known to be present
now than in the past, and this will also have an effect on climate.

Climate change is a change in the 'average weather' that a given region

experiences, and average weather changes will be unevenly dispersed around
the world, with some places experiencing much greater rises than others.
Climate change in the Arctic will be greater than in most other regions, and is
expected to move the permafrost boundary north by several hundred
kilometers.

The issue of climate change is closely linked to other environmental issues, and
to the challenge of sustainable development itself. The impacts of climate
change once thought of as unimaginable and farfetched are now occurring.
Climate change, sometimes called “global warming”, is the most serious and
most complex environmental issue ever to confront the international
community.
Climate change isn't a problem for the future, it's affecting people around the
world today. A vast amount of research has been done on climate change, its
causes and implications. Many positive feedbacks also exist where the effects
of climate change accelerate global warming. However, developing countries
in particular are becoming more and more concerned about how climate
change will affect them, and they do not possess the wealth to protect their
populations from the effects of natural disasters such as flooding.

By Stephen Leahy
Inter Press Service
October 23, 2006

Soaring worldwide demand for energy is driving climate-altering

greenhouse gas emissions dangerously higher, and even as
investments grow in new "clean" energy sources, existing technologies
to reduce energy use are being neglected.

Energy remains crucial to economic development in a world where

over 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity. While the media
and government focus has been on greener and cleaner ways to
generate power through renewable sources like biofuels, wind, solar
and hydrogen, experts say that major improvements in energy
efficiency could dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases,
save money and provide the breathing space needed to improve and
develop new energy sources.

Scientists estimate that to avoid dangerous climate change (generally

viewed as a two-degree rise in global temperatures), world greenhouse
gas emissions need to be reduced by about 60 percent from today's
levels by 2050. At the same time, world energy demand is projected to
increase by over 50 percent between now and 2030, and that will raise
energy-related carbon dioxide emissions 52 percent higher than they
are today, reported the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2005
World Energy Outlook, considered the definitive report on global
energy.

That energy path is unsustainable, warns the IEA, which is calling for
major changes. "The need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas
emissions means a drastic overhaul of how we produce energy," said
Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, a U.S.
environmental group. "We are facing the biggest economic
transformation since the Industrial Revolution," Flavin told IPS. Few
people have been able to get their heads around the scope and
breadth of the changes, he said.

Alternative ways of generating energy with little or no carbon

emissions, improvements in energy efficiency and using less energy
overall will all be needed on a massive scale. That is beginning to
happen in terms of wind, solar and biofuel energy, which are growing
at double-digit rates and now generate close to 10 percent of the
world's energy, said Flavin.

However, energy efficiency in North America and elsewhere has been

on the back burner since the oil crisis of the 1970s. The European
Union is an exception, where even centuries-old apartment buildings
are lit by low-energy compact fluorescents equipped with motion
detectors or timers so they only turn on when needed. By contrast,
lights are on 24 hours in hallways and stairways as well as offices and
stores across North America.

This fall, EU countries, already twice as energy efficient as the U.S. or

Canada, announced an action plan to reduce their energy needs by
another 20 percent by 2020. "It is easier and cheaper to improve
energy efficiency than produce more energy," said Nathan Glasgow, a
senior consultant at the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute. The
opportunities to improve energy efficiency are nearly endless, Glasgow
said in an interview.

The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), headed by energy efficiency guru

Amory Lovins, has designed programs for large and small companies
that have dramatically reduced energy use and saved billions of
dollars. Converting coal at a U.S. power plant into energy that lights an
incandescent light bulb is only three percent efficient, RMI research
shows. Coal plants waste 70 percent of the energy they generate as
heat, transmission lines lose another 10 percent, and so on.

Wasted heat from U.S. coal plants amounts to 20 percent more energy
than Japan uses for everything, Lovins has written. Such inefficiencies
add up to hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. and more than one
trillion dollars a year globally.

But governments prefer to focus on building new power plants or

investing in new energy technologies like hydrogen fuel cells despite
the fact that the tools to make dramatic efficiency improvements
already exist, says Glasgow. The compact fluorescent lamp is one such
tool. It uses 70 to 80 percent less electricity and lasts 10 to 13 times
longer than an incandescent bulb, and costs between two and five
dollars. "You'll find more compact fluorescent lamps being used in
China than the U.S.," Flavin said.

India, China and other countries are facing a very different world as
they develop, one with less oil and a need to reduce pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions. "They know their development path will be
different and could leapfrog ahead into adopting and creating new
technologies," he said.

That path means using less energy while continuing to grow

economically, agreed Stephan Barg, senior corporate advisor at the
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). The IISD is a
policy research think tank based in Winnipeg, Canada. "Efficiency is
not about doing with less but getting the services (economic
development) we want with less energy," Barg told IPS.

Ironically, the U.S. and Canada may have more trouble making this
adjustment than developing countries. "The way we've organised our
cities in North America, with extensive unsustainable urban sprawl,
makes improvements in energy efficiency difficult," Barg said. During
the energy crisis of the 1970s, the United States and Canada
developed strong energy efficiency programs, but most of them have
fallen into disuse, he said.

The Canadian government funded the development of a super energy-

efficient home design in the 1970s called R-2000. But only a few
thousand have ever been built because they cost about five percent
more. "If Canada had adopted R-2000 as the building standard for
homes, we would be a much more energy efficient country," Barg told
IPS. The current U.S. and Canadian governments have so far refused to
mandate higher efficiency standards or establish national energy
efficiency policies, as European countries have done.

Humanity responds to short-term, urgent crises but often ignores long-

term ones, Barg said. "Politicians and the public don't understand the
urgency of the climate change problem," he noted. "We are reaching a
crisis globally with climate change. The key question is whether we will
be able to respond in time."
 Every day we burn large amounts of gasoline, oil, coal and natural gas. These important
sources of energy power our cars, run our businesses and provide electricity. But burning
these fossil fuels also produces harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Like the glass in a greenhouse, these gases collect in the atmosphere and create a barrier that prevents the
earth’s excess heat from escaping. As the barrier grows, the earth’s temperature increases. This is
magnifying the natural greenhouse effect and the result is climate change.

We now consume petroleum products at a tremendous rate. Burning fuel in our cars, factories and power
plants has pumped billions of tonnes of microscopic particles and greenhouse gases into our atmosphere,
fundamentally changing its composition. Switching from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources is
vital to protect our atmosphere and climate.

Natural Gas
 Coal
 Oil
 Offshore Oil and gas