The Era of Fossil Fuels

• Fossil fuels: petroleum, natural gas and coal (organic)• Currently 90% of current US energy from from fossil

fuels • Expected oil production peak: 2020-2030• Consumption currently increasing• Projected world oil production will be exhausted by

2100• Produces significant and diverse pollution problems

o Greenhouse gasseso Gaseous Sulfur and nitrogen oxideso Land-based disturbances

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Proven world oil reserves in 1998.

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Fig 17.9 World coal reserves in 1999.

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Total energy consumption for the United States, 1950-1999.

© 2003 John Wiley and Sons Publishers

Taxes for 1 gal of gasoline in U.S. dollars equivalent for selected countries, 1995.

Historical Research and Development Dollars

Department of Energy Research and Development (Fiscal Year 1948-1998)

Nuclear Energy59%

Renewables11%

Fossil Fuel 23%

Energy Efficiency7%

Nuclear Energy Fossil Fuel Energy Efficiency Renewables

$66 Billion

$26 Billion

$8 Billion

$12 Billion

Current Energy Tax Breaks

Fiscal Years 2003-2007

12%

6%

76%

2%

1%

1%

2%

Nuclear Tax Exempt Energy Bonds Oil and Gas Coal Energy Conservation Geothermal and Solar Wind and Biomass

Pollution• Health Impacts

– More than 131 million Americans live in areas where smog pollution makes their air unsafe to breathe, and every year over 45,000 lives are cut short by air pollution.

– The National Academy of Sciences estimates that every year 60,000 children may be born at a significantly increased risk of neurological defects primarily due to mothers eating mercury-contaminated fish.

Pollution• Oil Spills

– 31,000 galloons of spilled into waterways every day

– Between 1973 and 1993 there were 200,000 oil spills in U.S. waters, spilling more than 230 million gallons of oil.

Pollution• Land Destruction

– Mountaintop removal in West Virginia

– Tens of thousands of coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming

PollutionGlobal Warming

– With only 4 percent of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution

– Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that the Earth's average surface temperature will increase between 2.5 and 10.4°F (1.4 to 5.8°C) between 1990 and 2100 if no major efforts are undertaken to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (the "business-as-usual" scenario).