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GREEN EDUCATION: MODULE 3

Reporter No. 3: ENERGY & FOSSIL FUEL CONSUMPTION

https://news.energysage.com/disadvantages-fossil-fuels/
What are the disadvantages of fossil fuels?
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https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-
energy/downloads.html

Statistical Review of World Energy

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https://www2.slideshare.net/easwaramoorthykannappan/limitations-of-fossil-fuel?from_action=save

Limitations of fossil fuel

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https://www.zdnet.com/article/watts-the-mystery-the-energy-units-that-power-our-lives/

'Watts' the mystery? The energy units that power our lives

==========================

10 Health Problems from Fossil Fuels

August 9, 2017

https://blog.arcadia.com/10-health-problems-fossil-fuels/

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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid19-energy-use-drop-crisis/

5 things to know about how coronavirus has hit global energy

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https://kiwienergy.us/effects-of-fossil-fuels-on-human-health/

Effects of Fossil Fuels on Human Health

https://kiwienergy.us/effects-of-fossil-fuels-on-human-health/

A terawatt-hour is a unit of energy equal to outputting one trillion watts for one hour. It is equal to 3.6x1015
Joules.

terawatt hour
1 terawatt hour (TWh) = 1 trillion watt hours. 1 gigawatt hour = 1 million kilowatt hours.

1 Terawatt Hours to Gigawatt Hours = 1000

What's bigger than a terawatt?
A kilowatt (kW) is 1,000 watts, a megawatt (MW) is 1,000 kilowatts, a gigawatt (GW) is 1,000 megawatts, and
a terawatt (TW) is 1,000 gigawatts.
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'Watts' the mystery? The energy units that power our lives
https://www.zdnet.com/article/watts-the-mystery-the-energy-units-that-power-our-lives/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTVtB-cSps

#CNBC
The Future Of Energy Storage Beyond Lithium Ion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2aShVTMMNc&t=140s
What If We Stopped Burning Fossil Fuels RIght Now?

Petroleum - modern history of oil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMQUGSrnbP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqmtLmmuQhw
Fossil Fuel Usage: And the Effects of It

A very topic to insert in my report :

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/covid19-energy-use-drop-crisis/

5 things to know about how coronavirus has hit global energy

18 May 2020

1. Douglas BroomSenior Writer, Formative Content

The World Economic Forum COVID Action Platform

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FOSSIL FUELS

https://prezi.com/aegfvkhwezcg/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-fossil-fuels/
FOSSIL FUELS
Fossil Fuels: A hydrocarbon deposit, such as petroleum, coal, or natural gas, derived from living matter of a
previous geologic time and used for fuel.
Fossil Fuels generate electricity by burning coal, natural gas, or oil. Oil, natural gas, or coal is burned under
water. The heat makes the water boil. When the water is hot enough, it creates steam which turns the turbine.
The turbine powers the generator. The fossil fuel has chemical energy which when burned creates thermal
energy. The thermal energy in the steam turns the turbine. The turbine converts the thermal energy into
mechanical energy. The turbine makes the generator work and in the generator, the mechanical energy is
transformed into electrical energy.
How fossil fuels are transported:
*Coal
is transported mainly by train. 71% of coal in the United States is transported this way. Of course coal can also
be moved by barge, ship, truck, and pipeline. Barges are the most cost-efficient way. Unfortunately they can
not, however, take coal everywhere it needs to go. The cost of shipping coal can cost more than the cost of
mining it.
*Natural gas
is transported by pipeline. We have learned to expect that in the winter demand for electricity will be greater.
Then the natural gas that was previously stored underground can be added back into the pipelines.
Underground storage units can be old oil and gas wells or caverns formed in old salt beds.
*Oil (petroleum)
is transported to power plants by ship, barge, pipelines, truck, or train.
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Advantages and disadvantages of burning fossil fuels.

ADVANTAGES

Fossil fuels are able to generate huge amounts of electricity in a single location.

Fossil fuels are extremely easy to come by.

Fossil fuels are
also extremely
easy to transport.
Fossil fuel power plants can be built almost anywhere.
DISADVANTAGES
Fossil fuels generate large amounts of carbon dioxide, thus creating the greenhouse effect.
This is also a main factor in most of the global warming the world sees today.
Fossil fuels also give off sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain.
The mining of coal causes the destruction of large amounts of land. It also puts the lives of the miners in
danger, as coal mining is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
The use of natural gases results in nasty smells.
Fossil fuel plants require oil. While the use of oil is efficient, the transportation of oil sometimes results in
environmental hazards caused when oil tankards spill. Oil also has toxic chemicals that create air pollution
when combusted.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9sciJRMWkM

Energy: General Environmental Impacts of Fossil Fuels

Apr 20, 2019
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6rglsLy1Ys
Air Pollution 101 | National Geographic
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3n8txX3144
Google and Amazon are now in the oil business
Jan 3, 2020

https://www.google.com/search?
q=advantages+and+disadvantages+of+fossil+fuels+ppt&sa=N&biw=1094&bih=416&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx
=1&fir=8Tl62Hnel_xkwM%252C9UnwKi1gUJd5lM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-
kQzbq0Q2erJowYUXchVGLeQQAE8Zg&ved=2ahUKEwjF1N2rnrLtAhUUK6YKHQSRBMg4ChD1AXoECBUQ
AQ#imgrc=8Tl62Hnel_xkwM
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Script: OIL AND GAS FORMATION

What Drives our cars, buses and planes? Powers our electricity, and allows us to cook our food
and heat our water
Most of today’s energy needs are met by fossil fuels, like coal, oil and gas.
These unique high energy fuels are non-renewable resources that took millions of years to
form.
About 2 billion years ago, marine organisms like algae, and microscopic animals and plants
died and settled on the ocean floor. Beneath other sediments in the ocean and in the absence
of oxygen, these fossils changed into a substance called KEROGEN. Under heat and pressure,
kerogen gradually changes into oil or gas. The whole process usually takes at least a million
years.
At the molecular level, oil and gas are hydro-carbons made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms.
The constant pressure and movement of the earth’s crust squeezes the oil and gas through the
pores or spaces within rocks. Some oil and gas reaches the earth’s surface and sips so naturally
into land or water. Often it is trapped beneath the surface by impermeable layers or rock
structures like faults and folds.
Within the crust oil or gas deposits builds up and form reservoirs. Reservoirs are like vast
sponges filled with oil and gas. They can be as large as a city.
To find oils and gas deposits, geologists use a number of survey techniques. Including seismic
surveys, gravitational surveys, and geological mapping.
Seismic surveys use reflective sound waves to produce a 3D view of the earth’s interior. New
technologies, such as four-dimensional projection and sophisticated graphic renderings of rock
structures, are improving the way we find conventional oil and gas deposits. Energy resources
that are currently difficult or expensive to extract unconventional oil and gas.
In a world with limited energy resources, people are looking at more efficient ways of tapping
into unconventional oil and gas or alternative and renewable sources of energy from biofuels
or the sun. What do you think will be the energy sources of the future?
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Topic 2: UNLOCKING CONCEPTS & BREIF HISTORY OF FOSSIL FUELS

Fossil Fuels is a term used to describe a group of energy sources that were formed from
ancient plants or organisms during the carboniferous period, approximately 360-286 million
years ago. Even before the Age of Dinosaurs. At that time, the land was covered with
swamps filled with organisms and plants. As they died, they sank into the bottom of swamps
and oceans and over millions of years, they started decomposing under layers of sand, clay
and other minerals.
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Different types of fossil fuels form depending on the combination of organic matter,
temperature, time, and pressure conditions while decomposing.
There are 3 major types of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas.
Coal is formed from ferns, plants and tress which hardened due to pressure and heat.
Oil was formed from small organisms like some planktons and algae where pressure caused
the more complex organic matter to decompose.
Natural gas was formed by the same process as oil only it’s exposed to more heat and
pressure causing it to further decompose and turn into a gaseous form.
---------------------------------------------------
Fossil fuels are sought after energy sources because they have a high energy density. They
are the world’s dominant energy source. Fossil fuels have a variety of applications from
electricity production to transport fuels. They can also be used to make a variety of common
products from plastics to cosmetics, to even some medicines. These resources have powered
industrialization over history and continue to do so today.
----------------------------------------------------
Fossil fuels can be abundant and cheap or in some cases a scarce and expensive form of
energy depending on geographic location. For this reason, geopolitical issues arise due to
scarcity caused by the natural geographic allocation of these highly valuable resources.
----------------------------------------------------
Fossil fuels are considered non-renewable resources because they take millions of years to
form which one fair use the resources will not be replenished in human lifetime. The gradual
depletion of the most excessive use of fuel reserves have forced companies to develop
technologies for extracting more challenging or unconventional reserves. In many cases this
means additional safety and environmental concerns as well as higher cost.
------------------------------------------------------
Fossil fuels are also the largest emitters of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes
climate change. In addition, their production causes both environmental and human health
issues. These concerns have triggered the society to look at alternative sources of energy
that are more environmentally sustainable and renewable. That’s fossil fuels.
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TOPIC 3: OIL SPILL EFFECTS

Oil spills can also affect human health. ... People who clean up the spill are more at risk.
Problems could include skin and eye irritation, neurologic and breathing problems, and stress.
Not much is known about the long-term effects of oil spills.
Source: https://www.environmentalpollutioncenters.org/oil-spill/humans/

Oil Spills' Effects on Human Life

Oil spills may occur all around us. Since oil products include a lot of common fuels, it is obvious
that oil spills may happen at high rates and in many locations, including residential areas.
Surface oil spills are easy to identify and will leave visible traces such as oil stains, as well as
other characteristic signs such as odors due to the vapors emitted by the spilled oil. The
underground oil spills are more difficult to catch and yet may be more problematic (oil may
reach groundwater more easily and travel with it). Both surface and underground oil spills have
the potential to contaminate soils, sediment, water (groundwater and surface water bodies), and
air (due to many volatile compounds emitted by the spilled oil into the air).

Oil spills have negative impacts on the residents of the affected areas. These effects can be
aggravated by severe weather conditions. An example in this sense is the Murphy oil spill (due to
the failure of a storage tank at the Murphy Oil USA refinery) that had particularly affected
residential areas in Louisiana. This happened because of the contamination of flood waters
following the levee breaks during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

More than 1 million gallons of mixed crude oil were released from the Murphy refinery tank. The
flooding enabled the spreading of spilled oil over larger areas, affecting about 1,700 homes in
several residential neighborhoods.

Effects on the General Population

The effects of oil spills on humans may be direct and indirect, depending on the type of contact
with the oil spill.

Direct exposure to oil spills  – occurs close to where people live or work and where they may
come in contact with oil spill components:

 By breathing contaminated air - since oil and products (petroleum products) have
many volatile compounds which are emitted as gases from spilled oil, the air becomes
contaminated with those volatile oil products or vapors producing specific odors. Even
when odors are not felt, a health risk may exist for some individual compounds if
residents are exposed (breath the air) for a long time. Of course, when the smell is
obvious the health risk increases. Once in the air, contamination may travel over long
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distances. Of course, that vapors will also become more diluted with the distance traveled.
So, the original contamination levels at the source along with specific weather conditions
may dictate the final spreading of oil contaminated air vapors.
 By direct contact with the skin - people may come in direct contact with oil and/or oil
products while walking in a contaminated area (e.g., beach). An initial irritation will be
obvious. Additionally, contaminants may be absorbed through the skin and enter the
body

Indirect exposure to oil spills - even when people live in places far from where the actual oil
spill took place:

 By bathing in contaminated water - for example swimming in a contaminated water

stream - even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dissolved oil contaminants may exist
in the water if it was impacted by an oil spill
 By eating contaminated food - some oil compounds bioaccumulate in living organisms
and may become more concentrated along the food chain. Humans may become exposed
to concentrations of contaminants in the food that could be orders of magnitude higher
than in the contaminated environment. This is especially problematic since residents
could be exposed even if they live far away from an oil spill if they consume food coming
from a spill affected area

The main oil spill effects include a variety of diseases, negative economic impact, pollution with
crude oil or petroleum products (distillates such as: gasoline, diesel products, jet fuels, kerosene,
fuel oil, as well as heavy distillates like hydraulic and lubricating oils) and the aesthetic issues
that affect the residents of the affected areas in multiple ways.

The negative economic impact is a major effect of oil spill pollution. It can affect the
community where the oil spill occurred in a number of ways, among which the following are the
most important:

 Long-term ceasing of activities such as fishing in the polluted waters that affects
fishermen and fisheries if a very large amount of oil is spilled; for example, the BP oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico had already impacted many local fishermen's and fisheries' normal
activity, and this looks like a long-term effect due to the very large amount of spilled oil.
Effects on local fishermen are detailed below.
 Property value reduction depends on the magnitude of the oil spill and affects all the
properties in a certain area exposed to oil spill pollution; this negative effect on property
value applies not only to those properties directly affected by the oil spill, but to all the
properties in a certain area exposed to oil spill pollution or at risk of becoming polluted at
some point in time
 The reduction of tourism in the affected areas;
 The disturbance of land and sea traffic, which affects import-export activities;
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The aesthetic and recreational impact is related to the visible effects of oil spill pollution (oil
slick, sheens) appearing on coast waters, shoreline, and beaches, wetlands, etc. When more
serious, the complete closure of such recreational areas may occur, at least temporary, until the
spill is removed and the cleanup process ends.

Effects on Local Fishermen, Seamen and Ship Workers

Health problems due to the exposure to spilled oil or its volatile compounds may
appear. Oil-spill pollution diseases are obviously not restricted to fishermen, affecting the
population (residents) living in the affected area alike. 

Large oil spills, which usually occur in the oceans, affect commercial fishermen, seamen living in
the affected areas and ship workers on the ships near the oil spill location. Fishermen are
directly affected by large marine oil spills that contaminate the fish species swimming in the oil-
polluted water, along with ecosystem livelihoods. Seamen can be affected if they bathe
in contaminated water – for example swimming in a contaminated water stream. Even when an
oil sheen may not be visible, dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water. Last but not
least, ship workers can inhale the fine particulate matter resulted from oil spills.

Fishermen and local ship workers can lose their jobs for extended periods of time due to
government bans and restrictions on fishing. Until the oil spill is stopped and the clean-up of all
oil pollution is completed, thousands of square miles may be closed. Being hard to predict and
quantify in terms of dollar loss, this aspect is maybe the most subtle and dangerous one.

Fishing restrictions can generate economic drops in the living area, affecting fishermen and
residents from the area alike. Even if a fisherman is willing to start a new job and a new life,
there may be limited options for him. This is due to the general economic downturn as a result
of oil spill pollution.

Commercial fishermen who own their own boats may lose them by:

 the lack of financial means to finish any boat payments they may have
 being unable to put their boats to a "good use" for a long period of time.

Since all fishermen are fond of water and the daily activities related to fishing, psychological
effects may appear in affected fishermen. It is quite common that this type of profession is
transmitted from father to son and stays in a family for generations. When such family tradition
is suddenly broken due to fishing restrictions as a result of large oil spills, the affected fishermen
may never recover psychologically. They may go on with their lives, they may find other jobs,
they may survive, but they may never be the same! This could develop serious social problems in
the affected areas. Unfortunately, there are no remedies for those fishermen with family
traditions except getting back to commercial fishing again. This, however, can take a while.
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It should be noted that that the fishing restrictions in the areas affected by oil spill pollution are
necessary since the consumption of contaminated fish could have serious health effects,
especially due to the bioaccumulation of some chemicals in the fish. Such chemicals come from
the compounds of oil (such as PAHs - polyaromatic hydrocarbons).

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Health impacts of oil spills

Published studies have looked at both self-reported symptoms and biomarkers (laboratory results from
samples) in people who came into contact in some way with oil or gas following spills (Aguilera et al.
2010; D’Andrea and Reddy 2014; Laffon et al. 2016; for a recent review see Ramirez et al. 2017). Self-
reported symptoms can be grouped into respiratory problems, irritations (eye, skin, etc.), neurological
effects (headache, dizziness, etc.) and traumatic symptoms (pain). Symptoms were, in many cases,
related to the intensity of the exposure. In other words, the closer the person was to the spill or the more
time they spent near the spill, the greater the symptoms. These findings suggest that each time local
Ecuadorian Amazonian people are exposed to a spill they suffer these same symptoms. The nonstop
contact with oil among indigenous people in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon would presumably have
a cumulative effect, making individuals more vulnerable once an accident occurs.

Studies of biomarkers have uncovered irreparable harm to humans exposed to oil and gas from
spills. These effects can be grouped into respiratory damage, liver damage, decreased immunity,
increased cancer risk, reproductive damage and higher levels of some toxics (hydrocarbons and heavy
metals). https://www.amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/health-oil/