Fossil fuel and Related Topics

Average surface air temperatures from 2011 to 2021 compared to the 1956–1976 average

Climate change

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Contemporary climate change includes both global warming and its impacts on Earth's weather patterns.

Change in average surface air temperature since the industrial revolution, plus drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability.

Global surface temperature reconstruction over the last 2000 years using proxy data from tree rings, corals, and ice cores in blue. Directly observed data is in red.

Drivers of climate change from 1850–1900 to 2010–2019. There was no significant contribution from internal variability or solar and volcanic drivers.

concentrations over the last 800,000 years as measured from ice cores (blue/green) and directly (black)

The Global Carbon Project shows how additions to since 1880 have been caused by different sources ramping up one after another.

The rate of global tree cover loss has approximately doubled since 2001, to an annual loss approaching an area the size of Italy.

Sea ice reflects 50% to 70% of incoming solar radiation while the dark ocean surface only reflects 6%, so melting sea ice is a self-reinforcing feedback.

Projected global surface temperature changes relative to 1850–1900, based on CMIP6 multi-model mean changes.

The sixth IPCC Assessment Report projects changes in average soil moisture that can disrupt agriculture and ecosystems. A reduction in soil moisture by one standard deviation means that average soil moisture will approximately match the ninth driest year between 1850 and 1900 at that location.

Historical sea level reconstruction and projections up to 2100 published in 2017 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021) projects that extreme weather will be progressively more common as the Earth warms.

Scenarios of global greenhouse gas emissions. If all countries achieve their current Paris Agreement pledges, average warming by 2100 would still significantly exceed the maximum 2 °C target set by the Agreement.

Coal, oil, and natural gas remain the primary global energy sources even as renewables have begun rapidly increasing.

Economic sectors with more greenhouse gas contributions have a greater stake in climate change policies.

Most emissions have been absorbed by carbon sinks, including plant growth, soil uptake, and ocean uptake (2020 Global Carbon Budget).

Since 2000, rising emissions in China and the rest of world have surpassed the output of the United States and Europe.

Per person, the United States generates at a far faster rate than other primary regions.

Academic studies of scientific consensus reflect that the level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science.

Data has been cherry picked from short periods to falsely assert that global temperatures are not rising. Blue trendlines show short periods that mask longer-term warming trends (red trendlines). Blue dots show the so-called global warming hiatus.

The 2017 People's Climate March took place in hundreds of locations. Shown: the Washington, D.C. march, protesting policies of then-U.S. President Trump.

Tyndall's ratio spectrophotometer (drawing from 1861) measured how much infrared radiation was absorbed and emitted by various gases filling its central tube.

alt=Underwater photograph of branching coral that is bleached white|Ecological collapse. Bleaching has damaged the Great Barrier Reef and threatens reefs worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sos.noaa.gov/datasets/coral-reef-risk-outlook/|title=Coral Reef Risk Outlook|access-date=4 April 2020|publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|quote=At present, local human activities, coupled with past thermal stress, threaten an estimated 75 percent of the world's reefs. By 2030, estimates predict more than 90% of the world's reefs will be threatened by local human activities, warming, and acidification, with nearly 60% facing high, very high, or critical threat levels.}}</ref>

alt=Photograph of evening in a valley settlement. The skyline in the hills beyond is lit up red from the fires.|Extreme weather. Drought and high temperatures worsened the 2020 bushfires in Australia.<ref>{{harvnb|Carbon Brief, 7 January|2020}}.</ref>

alt=The green landscape is interrupted by a huge muddy scar where the ground has subsided.|Arctic warming. Permafrost thaws undermine infrastructure and release methane, a greenhouse gas.

alt=An emaciated polar bear stands atop the remains of a melting ice floe.|Habitat destruction. Many arctic animals rely on sea ice, which has been disappearing in a warming Arctic.<ref>{{harvnb|IPCC AR5 WG2 Ch28|2014|p=1596|ps=: "Within 50 to 70 years, loss of hunting habitats may lead to elimination of polar bears from seasonally ice-covered areas, where two-thirds of their world population currently live."}}</ref>

alt=Photograph of a large area of forest. The green trees are interspersed with large patches of damaged or dead trees turning purple-brown and light red.|Pest propagation. Mild winters allow more pine beetles to survive to kill large swaths of forest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/climatechange.htm|title=What a changing climate means for Rocky Mountain National Park|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=9 April 2020}}</ref>

Environmental migration. Sparser rainfall leads to desertification that harms agriculture and can displace populations. Shown: Telly, Mali (2008).<ref>{{harvnb|Serdeczny|Adams|Baarsch|Coumou|2016}}.</ref>

Agricultural changes. Droughts, rising temperatures, and extreme weather negatively impact agriculture. Shown: Texas, US (2013).<ref>{{harvnb|IPCC SRCCL Ch5|2019|pp=439, 464}}.</ref>

Tidal flooding. Sea-level rise increases flooding in low-lying coastal regions. Shown: Venice, Italy (2004).<ref name="NOAAnuisance">{{cite web|url=http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html |title=What is nuisance flooding? |author=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |access-date=April 8, 2020}}</ref>

Storm intensification. Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr (2007) is an example of catastrophic flooding from increased rainfall.<ref>{{harvnb|Kabir|Khan|Ball|Caldwell|2016}}.</ref>

Heat wave intensification. Events like the June 2019 European heat wave are becoming more common.<ref>{{harvnb|Van Oldenborgh|Philip|Kew|Vautard|2019}}.</ref>

Burning fossil fuels for energy production creates most of these emissions.

Petroleum

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Naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations.

Shale bings near Broxburn, 3 of a total of 19 in West Lothian.

This wartime propaganda poster promoted carpooling as a way to ration vital gasoline during World War II.

Unconventional resources are much larger than conventional ones.

Octane, a hydrocarbon found in petroleum. Lines represent single bonds; black spheres represent carbon; white spheres represent hydrogen.

Structure of a vanadium porphyrin compound (left) extracted from petroleum by Alfred E. Treibs, father of organic geochemistry. Treibs noted the close structural similarity of this molecule and chlorophyll a (right).

A hydrocarbon trap consists of a reservoir rock (yellow) where oil (red) can accumulate, and a caprock (green) that prevents it from egressing.

Some marker crudes with their sulfur content (horizontal) and API gravity (vertical) and relative production quantity.

Nominal and inflation-adjusted US dollar price of crude oil, 1861–2015.

Oil consumption per capita (darker colors represent more consumption, gray represents no data) (source: see file description).

Global fossil carbon emissions, an indicator of consumption, from 1800. {{legend|black|Total}}{{legend|blue|Oil}}

Rate of world energy usage per year from 1970.<ref name="BP-Report-2012">BP: Statistical Review of World Energy {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516003736/http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037130&contentId=7068669 |date=May 16, 2013 }}, Workbook (xlsx), London, 2012</ref>

Daily oil consumption from 1980 to 2006.

Oil consumption by percentage of total per region from 1980 to 2006: {{legend|red|US}}{{legend|blue|Europe}}{{legend|#D1D117|Asia and Oceania}}.

A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, mostly zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both prolonged heat and pressure.

Climate change mitigation

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Climate change mitigation consists of actions to limit global warming and its related effects.

Multiple pathways exist to limit climate change to 1.5 °C or 2 °C in the context of the temperature goals set forth in the Paris Agreement.

Global greenhouse gas emissions by sector, 2016. For climate change mitigation goals, pathways and mechanisms to effectively transform all sectors have to be developed and implemented at a rapid rate.

Global CO2 emissions by region from fossil fuels combustion, 2019 (not accounting for extradomestic production / imports-footprints)

The 150 MW Andasol solar power station is a commercial parabolic trough solar thermal power plant, located in Spain. The Andasol plant uses tanks of molten salt to store solar energy so that it can continue generating electricity for 7.5 hours after the sun has stopped shining.

The Shepherds Flat Wind Farm is an 845 megawatt (MW) nameplate capacity, wind farm in the US state of Oregon, each turbine is a nameplate 2 or 2.5 MW electricity generator.

The 22,500 MW nameplate capacity Three Gorges Dam in the People's Republic of China, the largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

A comparison of prices over time for energy from nuclear fission and from other sources. Over the presented time, thousands of wind turbines and similar were built on assembly lines in mass production resulting in an economy of scale.

Sketch of a possible super grid. The red squares represent the total surfaces needed for solar collectors of Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plants to provide the present electricity demands.

In the European Investment Bank Climate Survey EU citizens said that in Europe, energy should be the most prioritised area of action against climate change.

About 58% of emissions have been absorbed by carbon sinks, including plant growth, soil uptake, and ocean uptake (2020 Global Carbon Budget).

World protected area map with total percentage of each country under protection, where countries in lighter colors have more protected land

Transferring land rights to indigenous inhabitants is argued to efficiently conserve forests.

Helping existing roots and tree stumps regrow even in long deforested areas is argued to be more efficient than planting trees. Lack of legal ownership to trees by locals is the biggest obstacle preventing regrowth.

(A) Untrawled seamount and (B) a trawled seamount. Bottom trawling has destroyed many coastal habitats, a significant sink of carbon.

Schematic showing both terrestrial and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions from a large point source, for example burning natural gas

Alstom Citadis (left) and Eurotram (right) trams in Strasbourg on grassed track

Managed grazing methods are argued to be able to restore grasslands, thereby significantly decreasing atmospheric CO2 levels.

A matrix of the progress in the adoption of management practices and approaches

Bicycles have almost no carbon footprint compared to cars, and canal transport may represent a positive option for certain types of freight in the 21st century.

Carbon emission trade - allowance prices from 2008

The European Investment Bank's Investment Survey 2020 found that firms with active climate policies invest more in energy efficiency.

The European Investment Bank's Investment Survey also found that Western and Northern European firms are more likely to invest in climate mitigation.

More firms plan to invest in climate change mitigation, specifically focusing on low-carbon sectors.

Physical risks of climate change top the list of business concerns for US and EU firms.

Since 1950, world population has tripled.

The emissions of the richest 1% of the global population account for more than twice the combined share of the poorest 50%.

A photo of the September 2019 climate strikes

A typology of discourses aimed at delaying climate change mitigation

Emission responsibility allotments by country/region and industry

Historical and future temperature projections showing importance of mitigating short-lived climate pollutants like methane

Potential emissions from large fossil fuel projects 'carbon bombs' per country

Distribution of committed emissions from developed fossil fuel reserves.

Emission trading and carbon taxes around the world (2019)
Carbon emission trading implemented or scheduled
Carbon tax implemented or scheduled
Carbon emission trading or carbon tax under consideration

Fossil fuels emit most carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas as a whole.

Carbon dioxide

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Chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms.

Stretching and bending oscillations of the CO2 carbon dioxide molecule. Upper left: symmetric stretching. Upper right: antisymmetric stretching. Lower line: degenerate pair of bending modes.

Pellets of "dry ice", a common form of solid carbon dioxide

Pressure–temperature phase diagram of carbon dioxide. Note that it is a log-lin chart.

Dry ice used to preserve grapes after harvest

Comparison of the pressure–temperature phase diagrams of carbon dioxide (red) and water (blue) as a log-lin chart with phase transitions points at 1 atmosphere

Keeling curve of the atmospheric CO2 concentration

Atmospheric CO2 annual growth rose 300% since the 1960s.

Annual flows from anthropogenic sources (left) into Earth's atmosphere, land, and ocean sinks (right) since the 1960s. Units in equivalent gigatonnes carbon per year.

Pterapod shell dissolved in seawater adjusted to an ocean chemistry projected for the year 2100.

Overview of the Calvin cycle and carbon fixation

Overview of photosynthesis and respiration. Carbon dioxide (at right), together with water, form oxygen and organic compounds (at left) by photosynthesis, which can be respired to water and (CO2).

Symptoms of carbon dioxide toxicity, by increasing volume percent in air.

Rising levels of CO2 threatened the Apollo 13 astronauts who had to adapt cartridges from the command module to supply the carbon dioxide scrubber in the Lunar Module, which they used as a lifeboat.

CO2 concentration meter using a nondispersive infrared sensor

Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of these increased CO2 concentrations and also the primary cause of global warming and climate change.

Air pollution

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Contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials.

2016 air quality indicator – light colors have lower air quality and thus higher air pollution.

Aviation is a major source of air pollution.

Controlled burning of a field outside of Statesboro, Georgia, in preparation for spring planting

Smoking of fish over an open fire in Ghana, 2018

Beijing air in 2005 after rain (left) and a smoggy day (right)

E-waste processing in Agbogbloshie, Ghana using open-burning of electronics to access valuable metals like copper. Open burning of plastics is common in many parts of the world without the capacity for processing. Especially without proper protections, heavy metals and other contaminates can seep into the soil, and create water pollution and air pollution.

Schematic drawing, causes and effects of air pollution: (1) greenhouse effect, (2) particulate contamination, (3) increased UV radiation, (4) acid rain, (5) increased ground-level ozone concentration, (6) increased levels of nitrogen oxides

Up to 30% of Europeans living in cities are exposed to air pollutant levels exceeding EU air quality standards. Around 98% of Europeans living in cities are exposed to levels of air pollutants deemed damaging to health by the World Health Organization's more stringent guidelines.

Share of deaths from indoor air pollution

Air quality monitoring, New Delhi, India

Share of deaths from outdoor air pollution, OWID

Comparison of footprint-based and transboundary pollution-based relationships among G20 nations for the number of PM2.5-related premature deaths.

Unprotected exposure to PM2.5 air pollution can be equivalent to smoking multiple cigarettes per day, potentially increasing the risk of cancer, which is mainly the result of environmental factors.

Share of the population exposed to air pollution levels above WHO guidelines, OWID

Artist's illustration of an advanced ET civilization with industrial pollution

Support for a ban on high-emission vehicles in city centres in Europe, China and the US from respondents to the European Investment Bank Climate Survey

Support, use and infrastructure-expansion of forms of public transport that do not cause air pollution may be a critical key alternative to pollution

Tarps and netting are often used to reduce the amount of dust released from construction sites.

Nitrogen dioxide concentrations as measured from satellite 2002–2004

Before flue-gas desulfurization was installed, the emissions from this power plant in New Mexico contained excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide.

Thermal oxidisers are air pollution abatement options for hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and odorous emissions.

Deaths from air pollution per 100,000 inhabitants (IHME, 2019)

Burning of items polluting Jamestown environment in Accra, Ghana

fossil-fuel power plants and biomass power plants both have smoke stacks (see for example environmental impact of the coal industry)

Energy transition

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Ongoing process of replacing fossil fuels with low carbon energy sources.

An example of a long-term historic energy transition: share of primary energy by source in Portugal

A booth for the Citizens' Climate Lobby, at a rally for science in Minnesota, 2018.

Global energy consumption by source (in %).

Denmark electricity generation by source

Market share of Germany's power generation 2014

Primary energy mix in the United Kingdom over time, differentiated by energy source (in % of the total energy consumption)

Timeline of commissioned and decommissioned nuclear capacity since the 1950s. Positive numbers show the commissioned capacity for each year; negative numbers show the decommissioned capacity for each year.

Gross generation of electricity by source in Germany 1990–2020

6 advantages of an energy transition (for example in Europe) - Energy Atlas 2018

Since fossil fuels are the largest single source of carbon emissions, the quantity that can be produced is limited by the Paris Agreement of 2015 to keep global warming below 1.5 °C.

Diagram describing the ideal combustion cycle by Carnot

Internal combustion engine

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Overhead cam 4-stroke gasoline engine: C – crankshaft

Piston, piston ring, gudgeon pin and connecting rod

Valve train above a Diesel engine cylinder head. This engine uses rocker arms but no pushrods.

Engine block seen from below. The cylinders, oil spray nozzle and half of the main bearings are clearly visible.

Diagram showing the operation of a 4-stroke SI engine. Labels:
1 ‐ Induction
2 ‐ Compression
3 ‐ Power
4 ‐ Exhaust

Diagram of a crankcase scavenged 2-stroke engine in operation

Diagram of an engine using pressurized lubrication

P-V diagram for the ideal Diesel cycle. The cycle follows the numbers 1–4 in clockwise direction.

The Wankel rotary cycle. The shaft turns three times for each rotation of the rotor around the lobe and once for each orbital revolution around the eccentric shaft.

ICEs are typically powered by fossil fuels like natural gas or petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel or fuel oil.

Fuel

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Any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work.

Fuel gauge for gasoline on a 50 ccm scooter, with the typical pictogram of a gas pump

Two CANDU ("CANada Deuterium Uranium") fuel bundles, each about 50cm long and 10cm in diameter

Nuclear fuel pellets are used to release nuclear energy.

Most liquid fuels in widespread use are derived from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure inside the Earth's crust.