How Fossil Fuels Effect the Environment

HOW FOSSIL FUELS EFFECT THE

ENVIRONMENT

ES 350

Vildan DEMİRKIRAN

Izmir University of Economics

BA Student of International Relations and European Union

In collaboration with

Andrea SİCA

Università degli Studi di Salerno – UNISA

MA Student of Business Administration and Consulting

2010-2012

http://www.economia.unisa.it/

ES350 Sustainable Energy Development

Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Efe BİRESSELİOĞLU

Copyright ®

September 27th, 2011 – December 28th, 2011

Table of Contents

A general analysis of the subject ....................................................................................................... 2

The necessity of Fossil Fuels .............................................................................................................. 4

The consequences by using Fossil Fuels ........................................................................................... 8

Greenhouse effect……………………………………………………………………………………..10

Which countries use fossil fuels more? .......................................................................................... 12

Fossil Fuel Use in China and India Forecasted to Continue Growth ………………….15

Do countries have any project to reduce their fossil fuel use? ..................................................... 16

Non-fossil fuels to take up 11.4% of China's energy use………………………………….16

Cleaning up coal……………………………………………………………………………………...17

What can we do to help carbon dioxide emission? ....................................................................... 17

Reduce your impact at home……………………………………………………………………..18

Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 20

List of Figures

Figure 1 - The amount of fossil fuels in the world by area and devided by clusters. ................... 3

Figure 2 - Fossil Fuels total consumption (% of total), divided by area.. ..................................... 5

Figure 3 – Personal elaboration of the energy usage in kg of oil equivalent per capita.. ............ 6

Figure 4 – Personal elaboration of the fossil fuels energy consumption. ...................................... 7

Figure 5 - Atmospheric CO2 and Global Surface Temperature Trends.. ................................... 11

Introduction

The purpose of this project is to give a brief analysis on how Fossil Fuels effect the

environment, since there is a whole agreement in who have written1 this project-paper that those

sources really have a bad result on the entire environment, destroying the nature and the diversity

first, then the overall population of the world since the natural connection.

For this reason, it will be firstly introduced the topic, such what Fossil Fuels effectively are and

what is technically intended by that name. In the same section it is provided the classification of the

acknowledged Fossil Fuels and a graph which explain their amount in the world. After that, it will

be examined how those sources are used, by noting the development in the human activity and their

requirement of energy, thus it will be analyzed the energy usage by firstly comparing three

interesting areas, such the world, the European Union and the Least Developed Countries, to then

compare its value among Italy and Turkey. In this section there will also be listed the sectors by

energy consumption and showing the Fossil Fuels consumption as in the same areas as in the

previous graph.

A glance to the consequences of the Fossil Fuels combustion comes in following section, in

which they are listed all the results of the single activities. This section seems really interesting,

since it goes to analyze each single step in the Fossil Fuels life, from their researching up to the

usage, while highlighting the damage they cause to the environment. Hence the greenhouse effect is

explained, because of its huge scale and its importance.

Finally, it will be analyzed the countries which more pollute the environment by using those

fuels and a focus on China will be done, since it is know that it is the one most developing and thus

more polluting.

It will be underlined at the end how each person can take little actions to make our planet better

to live, by carefully in daily life actions, since this is the way to give a change.

1 To be clear for the evaluation, Andrea Sica was responsible for the first four sections of this work, while Vildan

Demirkiran for the others. Introduction and the conclusions were made together.

Vildan Demirkıra and Andrea Sica

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A general analysis of the subject

Before to understand how these sources are classified by the nature, it is introduced the meaning

of their name. In fact, Fossil Fuel is the word used for all those natural substances which are formed

by hundreds of millions of years under the ground because of the anaerobic process.

The technical definition of Fossil Fuel is2:

"Incompletely oxidized and decayed animal and vegetable materials,

specifically coal, peat, lignite, petroleum and natural gas"

This is exactly related to the process that makes them like people usually use to know about,

since it is caused by the absence of air which with really high pressures and at determined

conditions makes those substances useful for the human needs.

In this process solar energy has a big role, because it is primarily collected by biosphere during

geological periods and then it is given to the plants through photosynthesis, to be transmitted to the

animal organisms and to the humans at the end, due to the food chain. In fact, after part of the

sunlight is taken by the plant and all the vegetation (commonly named autotrophic organisms), it

goes to transform the combination of carbon dioxide and water thus forming organic material, such

mostly carbohydrates, which animals (living organisms) absorb by eating them. Thus, at the end,

those substances pass to the ground because of the natural life effect and after all those centuries

they become the substance that people commonly use to generate energy.

Currently, the energy sources are divided in two main categories, rather the traditional fuels and

the non-traditional fuels, where in the first one are just represented:

1. Coal, the most common used within Fossil Fuels, it is further classified in peat, lignite,

litantrace, anthracite, according to the calorific value3 which increases as more as it pass

from the first to the last one. Globally it represents more than a quarter of the overall

energy production, especially due to its easier availability and lower price if compared

with others, but in the same time it is also one of the most polluting;

2 Font: http://www.essortment.com/fossil-fuel-its-impact-environment-57291.html. Essortement, your source for

knowledge. Last seen on October 19, 2011. 3 It expresses the maximum quantity of heating it can be obtained from the complete burning of 1 kg. combustible

substance, measured in joules over kilogram. Actually, it is considered the lower heating value which is the amount of

heating that is available to effect the complete burning at constant pressure of unit mass of fuel, less the heat of

condensation of water vapor during combustion. The heating power of coal is 31.4 MJ/kg. (litantrace), the one of

petroleum is 42 MJ/kg. and the one of gas is 31.65 MJ/kg. (methane).

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Figure 1 - The amount of fossil fuels in the world by area and devided by clusters (oil, coal, gas). This graph is taken by WCA (World Coal Association): http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/where-is-coal-found.

2. Petroleum, an hydrocarbon mixture that after a refinery process gives many useful

products, like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline (also known as petrol), naphtha4,

kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels, diesel fuel, fuel oils, lubricating oils, paraffin wax,

asphalt and tar, petroleum coke, according to the component of hydrocarbons. All of

them are differentiated for the content in hydrogen and carbon, where this second one

gives them an higher value of lower heating power;

3. Natural gas, commonly found together with the petroleum and it became famous thanks

to Chinese, who first used it in 300 B.C. to boil the ocean water and obtaining the salt.

Recently, industry started to transform it in liquid sources to be more useful and easily

transported, like naphtha or gas oil, through the gas to liquid process (GTL);

As clearly is from the Figure 1 coal is the fossil fuels which more gives opportunity for the

future consumption, since it is the most widely source in the world, followed by the gas and finally

the oil. In fact, according to WCA it has been estimated that there are over 4,416 billion barrels of

oil equivalent of proven coal reserves worldwide5. This means that there is enough coal to last us

4 One of its best derivatives, which are very useful in petro-chemical industries, is the virgin naphtha which is used to

realize lots of products like plastics. 5 For further and deep information please read The coal resources, a comprehensive overview of coal, by the World

Coal Institute, and the OPEC Annual statistical bulletin, 2010/2011 edition, which you can find the .pdf files following


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around 148 years at current rates of production. In contrast, proven oil and gas reserves are

equivalent to around 43 and 61 years at current production levels. Hence, if the overall consumption

will increase, as it is thought due to the development of BRIC countries like China and India, those

sources will be not enough for the furthers generations6.

Besides, in the second cluster are grouped the renewable sources, some traditional sources like

firewood, agricultural residues and animal waste, and then nuclear fuels7.

The main Fossil Fuels are formed in the same way and even the extraction process is pretty

much the same. In fact, they are found into the ground after many researches with particular

technologies. Not all Fossil Fuels can be used, hence this process of research can takes very long

time8 without give any profitable result, but they are still the most used because of the higher energy

productivity and the improved technology that makes them also cheaper.

The necessity of Fossil Fuels

At the beginning, humanity used to face its problems by using natural sources. Since they have

had the necessity to “create” the energy, people started to first count on their body by mechanical

power, then they improved their skills and how to take advantage from the natural sources like wind

especially.

Humans need external energy for almost all the activities they practice, as well as their body

constantly consume energy, which is created more or less for the 90% by the Fossil Fuels in all over

the world as we can see from Figure 2. The other energy is produced by renewable resources9.

the links below: http://www.worldcoal.org/assets_cm/files/PDF/thecoalresource.pdf,

http://www.opec.org/opec_web/static_files_project/media/downloads/publications/ASB2010_2011.pdf. 6 It has to be said that, according to the World Oil most optimistic proved reserve estimates, there are still 417 years left

for coal extraction, 43 for oil and 167 years for natural gas. 7 About the last kind of sources (uranium and thorium), if we refer to the way they are created and the fact that they are

not able to auto-reproduce in a short time, we should attribute them to the traditional fuels cluster. But actually these

energies are insert in the renewable cluster because of their capability to do not generate greenhouse gases. 8 The step of research medially takes 2-3 years just to find the fields of fuel. This timing can be less just in case of coal

fuel. After that, there will needed about other 2 years and even more to build the technological instruments for the

extraction process. 9 According to majority of people, renewable resources are the ones who can be restored in short period of time, for this

reason Fossil Fuels cannot be considered like this, since they take million years to be recreated. For further information

please look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy.

If we accept that, we must also recognize that one of the problems of these resources is that they will not be longer

available for next generations, because of our consumption. But it has to be said that there are different opinions on that,


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Figure 2 - Fossil Fuels total consumption (% of total), divided by area. Font: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.COMM.FO.ZS.

During the centuries people always grown their energy necessity, and energy now has become a

really necessity for our life.

As time went out, humanity started more and more to work less with their body and

implementing newest technologies instead, being more productive this way. Nowadays things are

really different, most of people cannot live without energy since they find in it their source of life10.

This is why Fossil Fuels are really indispensable for most of people, because they are used just to

produce the energy we need. They make us live.

while some people think that this resources are very common under the ground so we will have them forever. Although,

if we think that Fossil Fuels have been created by anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, we must think

that inside almost all Earth’s crust there is fossil fuel, and then we must think that this process it has continued for latest

centuries so to make new resources for next to come. 10 When we talk about “people” here, it is surly referred to advanced countries population, since we know that in many

countries there are a lot of people who do not have anything, not even the essential things. But paradoxically the world

goes this way because of the natural competitiveness.


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In Figure 3 it is represented the average of the energy firstly used in the world and then in two

selected areas, where one is the UE and the other one is Least developed countries11 (LDC). It is

impressive to see the difference among these two groups of countries, but this is just the reality of

matters, where there are still some countries which do not have access to the energy, contrariwise

those countries which use the energy more than necessary. In the same graph is also shown the

difference in energy usage between Italy and Turkey, and we can see that despite the number of

population which is bigger in the second nation, in the first one the energy consumption is

extremely higher12.

11 is the name given to a country which, according to the United Nations, exhibits the lowest indicators of

socioeconomic development, with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world. Since the

LDC category was initiated, only three countries have graduated to developing country status. The first country to

graduate from LDC status was Botswana in 1994. The second country was Cape Verde, in 2007. Maldives became the

third country to graduate to developing country status on 1 January 2011.[7] In 2011 the UN suggested that Equatorial

Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are among the candidates for promotion from LDC status. Font:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_developed_country. 12 We must know that the overall current population in Turkey is 72,752,325 inh. instead of 60,483,521 inh. in Italy,

The number of population is not the only factor which can show the propension to energy consumption, in fact the

number of enterprises is also important.

Figure 3 – Personal elaboration of the energy usage in kg of oil equivalent per capita. Font of data: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE/countries/1W?display=graph.


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Of course, electricity let the industrial system work too, thus energy sources are very important

for the enterprises in all kind of sector, from the production up to the distribution13. Following it is

utilized a simple classification showing which the users of energy are:

1. Residential, is related with any place where people live. It also includes Commercial

buildings since the way they use the energy is just the same;

2. Industrial, of course all the industrial sectors use energy but there are six energy-

intensive industries which consume more than the others, and they are: a) petroleum

refining; b) steel manufacturing; c) aluminum manufacturing; d) paper manufacturing; e)

chemical manufacturing; f) cement manufacturing;

3. Transportation, is the sector which includes all the way to move either people and goods

from a place to another, such the airlines, railroads and trucking companies;

Of course, as long as they require energy to work, with the Fossil Fuels combustion these sectors

pollute also if indirectly the environment.

Consumption of Fossil Fuels is increasing in the entire world, in fact according to EIA (Energy

Information Administration) all types of Fossil Fuels are used more and more so for private request

13 For further information the link below provides a simple but good brief on the energy consumption, divided by sector

and the activities: http://www.need.org/needpdf/infobook_activities/IntInfo/ConsI.pdf.

Figure 4 – Personal elaboration of the fossil fuels energy consumption expressed in percentage of the total. Font: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.COMM.FO.ZS/countries/1W-IT?display=graph .


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as for business matters. Contrariwise to what could be expected, is estimated these Fuels will still be

available for many years, so that the problem of their willingness seems to be really far away14.

It is important to notice that U.S. is not highlighted in Figure 4 although it represents the most

polluting country in current days, but we can see that EU is in its average of Fossil Fuels

consumption very close to the average in the world, despite the very low percentage of the Least

Developed Countries. According to the data, if we compare Italy and Turkey we can see that both

countries require this kind of consumption for a value which is above the world and European

average but, on the contrary than the first country which during years has started to decrease its

percentage of damaging the environment, Turkey has had an improvement in polluting because of

the Fossil Fuels combustion and request for energy consumption, up to reach a higher value15.

The consequences by using Fossil Fuels

While these non-renewable resources are used, they release a wide quantity of Co2 in the air and

this is the crucial reason why they are really dangerous, but they are still preferred to the renewable

ones due their energy return16.

Thus, because of the market role, all the population in the world is suffering many pains, though

of course there is always someone whose is more visible than others. First of all it must be said that

all kind of Fossil Fuels involve to the same problem, which is related to destruction of the humanity

because of the environment17 destruction. This effect is caused by the Co2 emission at most, since

all these sources issue this substance into the air.

Related with the Fossil Fuels there are several problems which are not usually known, but they

can be easily explained looking at the chain of the process:

14 For a thorough analysis it is suggested to visit: http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/pdf/0484(2011).pdf. Last seen on

October 22, 2011. 15 An interesting report which can be read about this topic is the CO2 Emission From Fuel Combustion Highlights, by

International Energy Agency (IEA), IEA Statistics, 2011 edition. Its pdf file can be found at the following link:

http://www.iea.org/co2highlights/co2highlights.pdf. 16 There are two different theories on this point, the one which estimates that currently fossil fuel still have a better

energy return on energy invested (EROEI), instead of renewable ones which at most can give back the 40% of invested

energy. The other theory is related to some renewable energy which are even better than Fossil Fuels in a few case, but

they are not commercialized because of the business interest (the power). 17 According to any common dictionary, generally “environment” refers to the biological, physical and social things on

the earth or in inhabitable space outside the earth's atmosphere. So, it refers to all the organic and inorganic creatures

that live inside and outside the earth.


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Despite to what is generally thought about, useful fossil fields are not very easy to find,

in fact they require something like 2-3 years just to do researches. During this phase it

might be destroyed some nature and its inhabitants, even if at the end the deposit will not

be used;

Drilling phase of course changes the naturalness of the territory, so that neither present

and future life will be able to live in it;

Extraction is one of the most polluting phases during this process, because it releases

many dangerous substances both inside and outside the soil that have a serious impact on

the environment. Firstly, the extraction leaves debris and other chemical materials which

pollutes the soil, in fact since it comes to rain those substances are going into the circle of

life by the breath of the plants or the water flow and they access to the food chain,

causing many pains to all the actors of the chain. After that, for those substances which

are not dropped on the soil, they are taken by the atmosphere to be left into the same

chain as well as into the air we breathe;

Referring to oil and coal, during the cleaning phase, all the water used in the process and

then left on the land impacts the normal life of plants and animals as we told about the

extracting phase. But most of all, this step has another serious consequence which is

given by the water polluting. In fact, when the water used to clean the “raw materials”

goes into the soil, or just because of the rain, it arrives into the sea changing its habitat.

For instance the nitrogen, phosphorus or sulfur that are taken with the water into the sea,

change the composition of the water making it different for its inhabitants, causing at the

same time also the eutrophication problem which is related to the seaweeds growth;

During transportation, refinement and production phases a lot of toxic substances are

given into the atmosphere, so that they are going to have consequences to the overall life.

In this case, but in the all the process too, the Co2 seems to be the worst problem since it

goes to makes the greenhouse effect;

The consumption is just the worst example of carbon dioxide impact, since when we burn

these substances we are giving all the Co2 and other gases pollution to the air, which then

take its place in flowing those all around the environment. This just contributes to the

greenhouse effect and the acid rains18; 18 Acid rains cause different problems to the environment, such as the water and soil chemical alteration which reduces

the pH and contributes to the vegetation extinction (and animals ones as a result), the increasing of algae population

which first makes problem to the sea inhabitants and then to the people (as for fishing practice), the artistic heritage

corrosion, etc.


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Hence, as we can see, there are a lot of problems caused to the environment because of the Fossil

Fuels, but they are paradoxically used for the humanity daily life19. Generally, instead of producers,

the countries that are using these sources are the most industrialized, since they ask for a higher

amount of energy at they depend which, thus for this reason other problems between those are

created in addition to the environment ones, such as conflicts of interest, and this has reflections in

the international market.

Greenhouse effect20

Life on earth is hung on a thin thread21, the atmosphere. Its role is to keep an acceptable life

condition about the climate temperature, given by the inflow and outflow of sunlight which is also

regulated by the ozone22.

This condition is severely shaken by the carbon dioxide which plays a different role in this

natural flow, since it keeps more than the normal sunlight and pours it again onto the earth.

There are many scientists who have theorized on greenhouse effect and consequent climate

change, also there are lots of them who say that this second effect it is a normal one and it comes

regularly on earth, but most of them think that the real issue is the pollution caused by Fossil Fuels

and the relative Co2 left into the air.

The function of this effect is just the same that happen in greenhouses (or conservatories) when

farmers use them for cultivating, in fact sunlight comes to the earth and when it wants to go back to

the space it is not allowed by the greenhouse gases23, which keep more sunlight than necessary

19 Obviously, the purpose of this brief is to show the problems which Fossil Fuels procure to the humanity. 20 I seriously recommend watching Al Gore movie: An inconvenient truth. Here is the link of the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnjx6KETmi4. 21 Earth is covered by a solution of gases whose molecules are retained by the force of gravity. “[…] parts of our

atmosphere act as an insulating blanket of just the right thickness, trapping sufficient solar energy to keep the global

average temperature in a pleasant range. […] The 'blanket' here is a collection of atmospheric gases called 'greenhouse

gases' based on the idea that the gases also 'trap' heat like the glass walls of a greenhouse do.”

Font: http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm. Last seen on October 21, 2011. 22 The atmosphere constitutes of five levels, which are the Troposphere, the Stratosphere, the Mesosphere, the

Thermosphere and the Exosphere. This gas is situated just next the Troposphere in the Stratosphere, and it is spread

around the globe because of the changing in the temperature, in fact the more the temperature gets hot the more the

ozone is distributed all around, but the Chlorofluorocarbons gases (CFC gases) reduces the ozone which then is less

capable to filter the sunlight, hence the temperature increases especially on the Artic zones, where this process is more

conspicuous. Font: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone, last seen on December 2, 2011. 23 The greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Font:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#Greenhouse_gases.


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sending it back to the earth. In more details, when the sunlight comes to the earth, its frequency is

too high to be kept by the greenhouse gases, thus it arrives on the ground to be then reflected to the

air, but on the way back its frequency is much lower so that the same greenhouse gases, which were

not able to catch it before, are now enough powerful to trap it and send it back again. For this

reason climate has changed in all over the world causing various problems all connected as a chain.

Figure 5 - Atmospheric CO2 and Global Surface Temperature Trends. Font by Big Sky Carbon Sequestration

Partnership: http://www.bigskyco2.org/whatisit/faqs/answers.

As we can see from the Figure 5 above, during last 160 years, as more as the carbon dioxide

concentration has increased according to the higher energy consumption, the hotter the temperature

has become during years, causing several problems all over the world. For example, when ice is

melted by higher temperatures it goes to increase the oceans and seas level and their degrees, this

way all their inhabitants suffers for the different condition of life and humans get problems too. The

increasing of water level goes to reduce the coastal areas so that people are not allowed to live there

anymore. As also we know, earth’s inhabitants are increasing more and more as well, thus this way

there will be too many people in the world compared with too less space to live in.

Simultaneously, the change in temperatures can break some creature life, like for some kind of

animals. But it commonly implies cyclones, floods, droughts and the spread of diseases such as

malaria, heating and icing waves, acidification of oceans due to reducing in pH, and so on.


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In all this vicious circle, the injustice is that the responsibility of these problems are especially

related to a smaller percentage of the world population (20%), that whit its selfish decisions causes

pains to the rest (80%) of the humanity in the world, just to consume more energy than they need

without even caring about the environment they are living in.

Which countries use fossil fuels more?

When we look at the information which is about usage of fossil fuels of countries in the world.

They show that the countries which are developed or newly developing use fossil fuels more,

because they already have those resources, mostly coal, in their territories,. When they use their

own sources it is more profitable for their economy. Since they have not had renewable energy or

clean energy resources enough yet, they prefer using fossil fuels even if they are harmful for the

environment. It seems that they will continue to use them for a long time. There is some

information below about countries fossil fuel use.

Figure 6. Global Oil Consumption by years24

When we look at oil sector, oil trading volume, which was in downtrend since 2008, has

become 53.5 million b/d with an increase of 2.2% in 2010. The highest export has come from

Middle East which is followed by former Soviet Union countries. 11% of oil import and 90% of

24 BP, “BP Statistical Review of World Energy”, June 2011


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import growth rate were from Asia-Pacific in 2010. The breakdown of global oil trade was 70%

crude oil and 30% refined products.25

According to the BP’s report oil demand, which was declining since 2008, has reached the highest

rate over the time and recorded as 87.4 million b/d with an increase of 2.7 million b/d in 2010.

Higher prices meant that oil consumption has recorded the weakest growth in global energy

consumption.26

Figure 7. Global Natural Gas Consumption by years27

When we look at natural gas sector it seems that natural gas consumption averaged 2.95 trillion

m3 in 2009, recorded as 3.169 trillion m3 with an increase of 7.4%. The highest consumption

increase is observed in Asia-Pacific with 12.6%, South and Central America (9.3%); on the other

hand, the lowest increase comes from North America that is 4.7%. World biggest natural gas

consumer US has raised its consumption by 36.7 billion m3 (5.6%), followed by Russia with an

increase of 24.5 billion m3 (6.3%) and China with an increase of 19.5 billion m3 (21.8%).28

25 Turkish Petroleum Corporation General Directorate, “2010 Oil and Natural Gas Sector Report”, August 2011. 26 BP, “BP Statistical Review of World Energy”, June 2011

http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055 27 BP, June 2011 28 BP, June 2011


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According to some news, economically developed or developing countries like China and

India use fossil fuels, mostly coal, and they will use those resources in the following years when we

look at the data below.

Figure 8 – China dominates global coal production29

According to some information from EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration)30,China

produced almost half the world's coal in 201031, that means, three times more than the United

States, the world's second largest producer, and almost as much as the next 10 highest producing

countries combined. While coal is found across the in great quantities globe (outside of the Middle

East), and production are highly concentrated, with the top five producing nations accounting for

over 75% of global production.

29 EIA: U.S. Energy Information Administration 30 October 4, 2011 31 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Statistics.

Note: 2010 data for nations that in 2009 collectively produced approximately 1% of global coal were unavailable and

were held constant at 2009 rates to calculate global coal production.


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Figure 9 – top five coal producing nations

The top coal producers32 have remained relatively stabilized since 2000. Among the top five

producers, only the fifth rank has changed; Indonesia's coal production grew 368% from 2000-

2010, moving it from 10th globally to get by Russia as the fifth largest producer. China also saw

strong growth, increasing production by 188% over that time period. U.S. coal production, on the

other hand, increased by only 1% from 2000-2010.

Growth in global coal production was heavily concentrated among those five producers. From

2000 to 2010, global coal production rose 66%, from five billion tons per year to over eight billion

tons per year. However, combined production in the top five producing nations grew by 98% during

this period, while production in the rest of the world grew by only 7%.

Fossil Fuel Use in China and India Forecasted to Continue Growth33

According to news of WASHINGTON, D.C., East-West Center Senior Fellow Fereidun

Fesharaki said that both China and India are possible to continue increasing their oil usage by

32 Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Statistics.

33 WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 22, 2010)


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hundreds of thousands of barrels a day in coming years as their economic growth increase energy

needs. But Fesharaki said he sees China’s growth in demand peaking around the year 2020.

Fesharaki supposed China’s oil use to rise by around 400,000 barrels a day for each of the next

eight to 10 years, after which he predicted it will slow down significantly. India’s annual growth

will be 100,000 to 150,000 barrels a day.

Fesharaki also said that, “In China and India it is very much the industry, the economy and

the way the system is organized which is leading to growth. But the world’s two most populous

countries diverge when it comes to policy. While both have large multinational energy companies,

China’s big oil and natural gas companies influence government policy, while in India, the

government drives oil company policy.”

Do countries have any project to reduce their fossil fuel use?

Some countries already have project on reducing carbon dioxide emission which caused by

their fossil fuels usage; such as, U.S.A. and China which are considerable consumer of those

resources. As we can see from some news they are working on switching their energy usage from

fossil fuels to renewable or clean energy. Below there are some news about U.S.A. and China’s

projects.

Non-fossil fuels to take up 11.4% of China's energy use34

According to the news of China Daily China has a project in order to reduce its negative effect

to the environment

The former head of the China’s National Energy Administration said:”China aims to increase

the proportion of non-fossil fuels in overall primary energy use to 11.4 percent by 2015. In the next

10 years, China will commit to adjusting its current energy mix which now mainly relies on coal”.

He also said that The target has been included in the 12th Five-Year Plan draft and is

mandatory, adding that it will keep China on course to achieve its goal of 15 percent by 2020.

Currently non-fossil fuels account for 8% of China’s total energy consumption.

He added also that in China's energy mix coal accounts for around 70 percent, that means, 30

percentage points higher than the world average level. Therefore, the heavy reliance on coal has put

China under great pressure in dealing with climate change and protecting the environment.

34 China Daily; March 4, 2011


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According to him country should try to trim that dependency by promoting the use of cleaner

fuels.

In addition to that he said that: “By the end of 2010, China's installed wind power capacity

exceeded 41 million kilowatts to be the world's largest. China also is presently constructing 28.71

million kilowatts of nuclear power capacity, also the most in the world. By 2020, more than half of

the 15 percent non-fossil share will come from hydropower”.

Cleaning up coal35

Coal is our most abundant fossil fuel. The United States has more coal than the rest of the

world has oil. There is still enough coal underground in this country to provide energy for the next

200 to 300 years.

But coal is not a perfect fuel. It is a dirty fuel to burn, but it was like that many years ago.

However, things have changed. Especially in the last 20 years, scientists have developed ways to

capture the pollutants trapped in coal before the dirtiness can escape into the atmosphere. Today, we

have technology that can filter out 99% of the small particles and clear off more than 95% of the

acid rain pollutants in coal.

We also have new technologies that cut back on the release of carbon dioxide by burning coal

more efficiently.

Many of these technologies belong to a family of energy systems called "clean coal

technologies." Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. Government has invested more than $3 billion in

developing and testing these processes in power plants and factories around the country. Private

companies and State governments have been part of this program. Actually, they have contributed

more than several billion dollars to these projects.

What can we do to help carbon dioxide emission?

Although some countries which cause carbon dioxide emission by using fossil fuels, they are

working on some project about reducing their fossil fuels energy use. While they are trying to do

something for the environment, also we should do our part as much as possible. For example, we

can do something at our homes which will be really helpful to reduce carbon dioxide emission.

Below, there some suggestion about what we can do at home.

35 U.S. Department of Energy


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Reduce your impact at home36

Use fluorescent light bulb instead of light bulb: When we use compact fluorescent lamp (cfl)

rather than regular bulb we can save energy by 60%. This simple change will save nearly 300

pounds of carbon dioxide a year. In the U.S., for example, if every family made this switch, they

could reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds.

Reduce your thermostat 2 degrees in winter and increase 2 degrees in summer: Almost half of

the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. By this simple adjustment we could

save about 2.000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Use less hot water: When we want to heat water, it takes a lot of energy. We can decrease hot

water usage by installing a low flow shower head and if we wash our clothes in cold or warm water

instead of hot we can save 500 pounds per year.

Clean or replace filters on furnace and air conditioner: Cleaning a dirty filter on air conditioner

can be saved 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever it’s possible: We can save 700 pounds of carbon

dioxide when we air dry our clothes for 6 months out of the year.

When making new purchases choose energy efficient appliances: In order to choose the most

efficient models, we should look for the Energy Star label, because Energy Star qualified products

and practices help us save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Buy fresh foods instead of frozen: In order to produce frozen food we need 10 times more energy.

Therefore, we should prefer fresh foods. They are also healthier than frozen foods.

Seek out and support local formers markets and buy organic foods as much as possible: The

markets reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to us by one fifth.

Besides, organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from

traditional farms. If all of corn and soybeans are grown organically, we could remove 580 billion

pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Plant a tree: Just a single tree absorbs one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime, so planting a

tree will be suitable also for next generation to live on healthy conditions.

36 http://www.climatecrisis.net/take_action/reduce_your_impact_at_home.php


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Switch to green power: In many areas we can switch to energy generated by clean, renewable

sources; such as, wind and solar. By using that type of energy generation power we can contribute

to have a clean environment.

Buy recycled paper products: When we use that kind of products we can save energy from 70 to

90% and by that way, loss of forests are prevented all over the world.

Insulate and weatherize our home: Properly insulating our walls and ceilings can save 25% of our

home heating bill and 2.000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Turn off electronic devices when we are not using them: Simply turning off our television,

computer, DVD Player when we are not using them will save us thousands of pounds of carbon

dioxide a year.

Unplug electronics from the wall when we’re not using them: It is not enough only turned off

tools like hairdryers, cell phone charges and televisions, because they use energy even when we

turned off. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts 5

percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews out 18 million tons of carbon into the

atmosphere every year. Therefore, we should unplug when we are not using them.


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Conclusion

As it is described in this project, fossil fuels have a big impact in all the world. Generally,

especially most developed countries know about the environmental pollution and all the

consequences they create by using those fuels, but they prefer to use them in their energy

production since they are still easy to find and they are more powerful as well if compared with

renewable ones.

Obviously, while they use them, they pollute the environment by causing several changes at the

same time. Some of them seem like they want to really change this vicious circle, they show like the

willingness to reduce the negative effect caused by carbon dioxide emission, but at the end the

groups of interest just make their business without care about the humanity and future generations.

Thus, they maintain the fossil fuel without care about to find a real alternative such as the energy

conversion with renewable energy.

The point is that everybody can play its role in this change for the climate protecting and all the

species saving, but as the matter of facts nobody seems to believe in this project enough to create a

group of sensitive able to take everybody to the goal for a safety planet.

How Fossil Fuels Effect the Environment

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