Let's Conserve Fossil Fuels and Save Our Environment

For centuries, homes around the world are brightened and made warm by fire. Some people burn wood for this purpose while others burn coal. Of course, wood is replaceable through the growing of new trees. But coal, like natural gas and oil, is nonrenewable - it can run out.

Coal, natural gas, and oil are what we call fossil fuels. They are produced over time in the earth from dead bodies of animals and plants. Coal, for instance, is formed by the effects of hot condition and pressure on swamp trees over time. Oil, on the other hand, is from animals and small plants that died in the seas thousands and thousands of years ago. Heat, pressure, and the passing of time gradually transformed the dead bodies into oil and gas.

Many years ago, people were concerned that the earth's supply of coal and oil would be exhausted because of the continuously increasing world population and of the growing demand of developing countries for more fuel. That point of view, however, has completely changed in this present time. The people's attention has dramatically shifted to saving the environment from the various forms of pollution brought about by the continued use of coal, gas, and oil for fuel. So now, the real pressing concern is this: Even before the earth's supply of fossil fuels is completely used up, we have got to save our environment from being totally destroyed by pollution caused by the uninterrupted use of these fossil fuels. In fact in many scientific researches and studies, it was already proven that pollution from the use of these fossil fuels increases acid rain, heightens global warming, and worsens the ozone layer's depletion.

Most of the alternative sources of energy - biomass, geothermal, wind, solar, and hydroelectric - do not produce sufficient power and, therefore, not one of them can immediately take the place of fossil fuels. Alternative energy sources can definitely help, but fossil fuels are still needed if we are to prevent our standard of living from falling severely.