Mind sharing your opinion about the issue of fossil fuels?

Question

you can say anything you like, just give a reason why/

Answer 1

Ok, global warming issue aside, we still need to find renewable fuels because fossil fuels are running out. Crude oil is due to run out within the next 40 years. It was predicted to be 50 years a while back, but because the use of fossil oil is actually still increasing, it'll be all gone even sooner now. *Edited to say... I want to point out that current price increase has a whole lot to do with world economics and nothing to do with actual supplies of fuel. However; fossil fuels are still limited so it is a concern in that respect.*

There are many emerging technologies for powering vehicles, such as biofuels (which have their good and bad points), hydrogen (needs a lot more development because hydrogen is expensive to obtain) and electric/hybrid vehicles. There are more but I don't want to go into loads of detail!

Electricity generation for our homes will be interesting. Again, there are plenty of options: solar, wind, wave, nuclear etc... But a lot of this is held back by the "not in my back yard" attitude many of the public have. Sooner or later, we will need wind turbines near our houses, otherwise we won't get electricity. Simple!

Of course, another issue is pollution which is caused by burning of fossil fuels. Eventually we will see this decrease as our options become more and more limited.

Also, a lot of people do not realise where many of our materials come from. Most plastics are manufactured from crude oil. Where will they come from in the future? We need to get better at recycling and exploring alternative materials.

I for one am watching the developments with interest. I am curious to see what our world will look like in the future, but still remaining optimistic.

Answer 2

Fossil fuels have and remain a great asset for humanity; however, we have failed to keep up with reducing the amount of pollution it has created.  We have failed to regulate it's distribution and the wealth gained by it, and It has resulted in wars that seem to have benefited only the wealthy and powerful in our societies -- and now we face pending global disaster as a result of global warming caused by fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels have become the big enemy while at the same time we have ignored how our governments have allowed powerful corporations to manipulate the prices for the personal gain of the elite few.  And neither of these two entities have put enough resources into R&D to reduce the polluting effects and to sharing the profits equitably.

Who is responsible to fix this problem now?  Well, in our crippled democracies, the irony is, we all are.

Answer 3

Fossil fuels are running out.  They pollute are getting a might costly (is that an understatement or what).  Ethanol and biodiesel are NOT the answer in my opinion.  Too many problems with them, the greatest is the cheapest way to make them is to take crops out of the food chain.

But, there just might be a way out.  I just read about "green" gasoline, made from wood, wood waste, grasses, etc.

Please tell people about this web site:

http://biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?a...

Please people, notify your government representives, you want corn and soybeans left for food.  Make gasoline from yard waste, leaves, wood waste, etc.

Answer 4

fossil fuels are defiantly running out the question is when and that is really what scares most people.  We can solve this by trying to reduce our consumption and using more environmentally friendly transportation like the train

Answer 5

Does anybody know what they are talking about?  Fossil fuels are not running out!  There is no shortage.  Here in Canada we have, untapped, reserves that are several times what is in all of the Middle East.  The high fuel prices are not caused by any shortage, rather speculators in the stock market who recognize that China and India are growing economies that have 'maxed-out' by demand our current production levels.

Can we make more?  Yes, absolutely.  Can we sustain higher production levels if we start to?  Yes.  Is the leftist-environmental movement doing everything they can to stop more production and exploration?  Yes.

The current high price of oil is due to market forces and the left scaring investors and politicians who seek re-election over this global warming scam.

Answer 6

It doesn't matter whether global warming is man made or just a cycle in the earth's history .... it is happening. Between solar processes or natural earth processes such as volcanoes and the ever present forest fires which will be argued to have occurances whether or not mankind were present. It still just doesn't matter how it is happening, it is.

FACT: "Atmospheric levels of CO2 are determined by how much coal, natural gas and oil we burn and how many trees we cut down, as well as by natural processes like plant growth. Atmospheric levels of water vapor, on the other hand, cannot be directly controlled by people; rather, they are determined by temperatures. The warmer the atmosphere, the more water vapor it can hold. As a result, water vapor is part of an amplifying effect. Greenhouse gases like CO2 warm the air, which in turn adds to the stock of water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and accelerates warming."

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011

We have gone past the point of no return unless we can build improvements to assist in reflecting light away from the earth.

First you have to understand how long the earth has been storing up the fossil fuels. The coal, oil and natural gas that we are using now are products of the earth converting plants and animals into their present forms over (often) millions of years. They have been stored now for millions of years without being used until now. By being used now, we are converting these fuels from stored carbon, into released carbon. Thus allowing this released carbon to act as a greenhouse effect gas again.

Since we are talking about a situation where the Earth once had a lot of stored carbon and now that stored carbon is disappearing at a tremendous rate (and will continue into the future) We can be truthful in saying that there is a definite trend, and relationship in the increase of greenhouse gasses. We can also say that these greenhouse gasses would not have been released without the intervention of man. Logically therefore we can say that global warming gasses have been released and any global warming increases are directly attributed to mankind’s releasing them.

The damage done by increased greenhouse emissions has already taken its toll. This is evident by the melting of polar ice and glaciers across the globe. Some will say that there is no such thing as global warming, because there is in their opinion very little change in the average global temperature. However when you take into account the fact that there is less ice, and snow, because of the melting of polar ice and glaciers across the globe. That melted ice, snow and glaciers across the globe will in themselves temporarily lower the overall ocean temperatures untill they all melt. Thereby lowering the average temperatures on the earth. So if you account for that, the temperature can be proven to be increasing.

We cannot get the world back the way it was, even as of fifty years ago, much less stop the damage that will still occur in the future. Sure we could try to stop all industry that will cause pollution, but at what cost. Without industry we could not sustain the present world population. Giving up industry and sacrificing billions of people on this planet in the process, is not a viable solution (even trying to merely lower greenhouse emissions is at best a temporary solution).

The biggest problem we have now is not just the fact that we have more greenhouse gasses trapping heat in, but we are getting less and less sunlight being reflected out from the planet. As the snow cover melts from more and more of the planets surface, the sunlight heats up more parts of the earth that once reflected light back out. It is like a dog chasing its tail (until it gets dizzy and falls from exhaustion). As global warming just keeps building on itself till the ecological balance fails, and this planet will no longer sustain the teeming human populations.

Greenhouse effect cure (there are no real cures but this may help till we can find one). First I want to point out that there are no real, viable short term, or easy methods of curing our Global warming woes. The damage to the environment has already been done and is, for all intent and purposes, basically irreversible. It is likely, however, that any type of plan to get rid of Global warming, will require some type of dramatic ecological compromises.

Some will say that all we need to do is give up industry on the planet and the world will eventually go back to the way it was. I say it is too late for that solution (as a short term solution anyway).

My plan, however, will require the use of old tires and recycled plastics. Of course it will require some engineering feats also, and a few ecological compromises. The benefits of using these wasted products will far outweigh the compromises required.

My idea is to build large floating islands (white on top, to reflect sunlight back out of our planet) made from used tires (filled with co2) and recycled plastics. Yes there are engineering and ecological problems, but everyone has to admit there are worse problems in our current situation. So the only feasible solution is to build a bunch of artificial reflection "islands" across the planet.

We can also try to get more people to use reflecting surfaces on buildings (which will be as difficult to do, as no one likes to have to do things exactly the same as everyone else).

There will be other benefits realized, once we build enough of these islands. One of the problems associated with the increased temperatures we are experiencing is the possibility of increased hurricane intensity and frequency. Having enough of these floating islands in strategic points in the oceans will help to alleviate this problem also. It is a well known fact that hurricanes form in areas of the ocean where the temperature rises above approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If we can keep those areas below that temperature (by reflecting sunlight away), we can prevent the formation of hurricanes. Without these floating islands, hurricanes will probably continue to increase in intensity and frequency…

We need a solution to deal with our Global warming woes, and we need it now. Even if this is a difficult path to follow, it will pay off in the future. The overall problems I see for Greenhouse effect is that we can go green all we want, but Global warming and our constant desire to be comfortable, will eventually undermine any efforts we may do. Unless we can get rid of some of the excess heat in this world, we will always be under the eventual threat of a thermal overheating demise.

Answer 7

Fossl fuels are polluting the earth, but are running out.

Answer 8

Fossil Fuels will be the downfall of humanity

as oil prices increase nations will spend more money and more money on oil and take it away from other things like education and raise prices on things we all buy like video games and candy and makeup therefor we wont buy them and each nations Economy will start to fail then we will go into a world wide depression that humanity will not recover from and taking away from the food supply to make ethanol will make it worse(food shortages)