We all know about oil drilling, but there are way more ways to get fossil fuels.
Let's DRINK THAT MILKSHAKE!
Fossil fuels are a worldwide essential resource.
We use coal, petroleum, natural gas, propane, diesel, kerosene and so on for manufacturing,
fuel, power, heat…
Honestly, they're part of almost everything we do every day.
Fossil fuels are made from the decomposed remains of tiny plants and animals which died
hundreds of millions of years ago in ancient oceans that covered our planet.
These organisms sank to the bottom where anaerobic bacteria digested the biomasses before the
heat and pressure of Earth's crust[1] pressed on them for millions of years.
Today, we extract these substances in various ways for so many uses, I can't even list them
all here -- plastics, shipping, construction, power… they would take way too long.
The most popular fossil fuel used today is oil.
The first oil well was drilled in 1859, and could extract 800 gallons[a] of crude a day[2],
waaay more than anyone saw need for at the time; in January 2015 humans produced about
94 million barrels of oil // every // day[3],[4].
Most of U.S. oil doesn't come from the Middle East, but from homegrown production!
We only imported 27 percent of our overall usage in 2014, the lowest since 1985[5]; what
we DO import comes from Latin America and Canada[6].
The reason we've become an oil producer and not a sole oil consumer, is hydraulic fracturing
in North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico[7].
This controversial fossil fuel extraction practice uses lots of water and fluid to fracture
the earth's crust, releasing the oil and natural gas trapped in the ground[8].
Fracking accounted for 49 percent of oil and 54 percent of natural gas production in February
2015[9].
As oil barrel prices drop profitability decreases[10], and fewer rigs are constructed.
Whether that's good or bad depends on your perspective; but if you think it sounds like
a complicated process, check out tar sands and shale.
Tar sands aren't like tar pits from the Flintstones or the Land Before Time; but rather they're
90 percent clay, sand and water.
They're often called oil sands or bituminous sands -- for the other 10 percent is valuable
bitumen -- a natural form of petroleum hydrocarbons.
Normally, petroleum is a liquid, but this isn't only because it's mixed in with the
clay and sand.
In warm weather, a "tar" sand is semi-solid, and the color of good gardening soil, and
it can freeze with cold temperatures[11] just like regular earth.
HowStuffWorks says Alberta, Canada, may contain as many as 300 BILLION barrels of oil trapped
in the sands -- but once it's separated, it burns the same as oil from anywhere else.
Shale oil is the name for a sedimentary rock with kerogen trapped inside it.
Kerogen is a hydrocarbon rich fuel source alternative to petroleum or natural gas[12].
Kerogen is like fossil fuels, but it can also be the result of ancient land plants or the
undersea plankton fossils I mentioned.
If we left shale oil alone for millions more years of geologic pressure and temperature[13];
the oil shale would eventually become simply, oil which we could drill out of the ground!
No one is that patient though, so instead, we've learned to extract, refined and turn
shale oil into many petroleum products.
Obviously, from a business perspective, the more traditional forms of extraction are best.
Drilling and mining are still very popular[14].
Drilling involves finding a pocket of oil and natural gas, drilling into it, and extracting
it for refining and processing.
it's not as difficult to extract as fracking, sands, or shale.
According to the World Coal Association, we mine over six billion metric tonnes of coal
annually; mostly in China, the USA, India, Australia and South Africa[15].
Many people and governments around the world object to the burning of fossil fuels because
hydrocarbons release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, which contribute to climate
change and global warming.
Some countries, like Costa Rica, have completely forsaken fossil fuels for renewable energy
like wind and solar[16].
But how to do you feel about it?
Do you want to know more about any of these technologies?
None of these fossil fuels happen in a vacuum though.
Remember that saying when a butterfly in flaps it's wings...
it causes a hurricane where ever?
That's true when it comes to pollution.
China's pollution is affecting more than just China.
Check out Julia's video on it here