Where did the carbon now locked in coal, oil&gas all over the planet come from? Was it all CO2 way back?

Question

Where did the carbon now locked in coal, oil&gas all over the planet come from? Was it all CO2 way back?

Answer 1

It came from the decayed remains of plants and animals that were exposed to heat and pressure over millions of years.

Answer 2

YES that is right. The plants all recycle our fossil fuels for us. It has done it for millions of years. That is all plant life even down to Algae.

   After the earth  first formed most everything was burning ,there were no fossil fuels at that time.

    Then some how plants got started to produce oxygen so animals could live.

Answer 3

It is generally accepted that fossil fuels formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals. By burning fossil fuels, we are putting carbon that has been locked and stored in rocks for tens of millions of years, back into the carbon cycle.

Plants and animals are temporary vehicles of carbon. Your body is about 20% carbon, and about 65% oxygen. When plants and animals die, these molecules are either released back into the atmosphere through decay, or lock away (from the carbon cycle) into fossils and rock which represents long term storage.

Tens of millions of years ago, the atmosphere contain much more CO2 than it does today; global temperatures were also much warmer. The source of this increase in CO2 was probably numerous underwater volcanoes that are no long active.

I hope that this answers your question.

Answer 4

Yes.

In past times, millions of years ago, CO2 was even higher.  Of course the coastlines would be very different.  That change now (unlikely) would cause most coastal cities to disappear, which can't be good.

The actual change is likely to be less, but still devastating.

Answer 5

It was all previously in the cells of plants and animals who ate plants.  And every one of those plants took it in from the atmosphere via photosynthesis.  Its one of the big suppressed secrets of the Global Warming Religion....all of that CO2 started out in the atmosphere to begin with.  And then along came life to upset all the hard work mother nature did.  Plants and later animals thrived under the elevated CO2 and temperature levels of the prehistoric era, and now Global Warming Alarmists say putting that carbon back into the air is going to "destroy the planet."

Silly, isn't it?

Answer 6

yup, that is all co2 locked away by forests, and animals millions and millions of years ago.

Dont forget though, way more carbon is locked up when sea creatures die, sink to the bottom, and become limestone.

Since we are digging up carbon that has been locked up for millions of years, I think we should be stuffing old coal mines full of new biomass and sealing them off to make up for it.

No, I dont believe in AGW.