Fossil Fuel Cons

Coal, oil and natural gas are all fossil fuels that society has come to depend on. Transportation and energy infrastructures have been built on fossil fuels' consumption, and people rely on them to power the devices that provide shelter and food. With all of the social advances enjoyed as a result of fossil fuel consumption, there have been consequences as well. The effects of fossil fuel energy on the air, the greater environment and the daily operations of industrialized societies can be negative as well as beneficial, in both the short and long term.

Air Pollution

• Even with the application of the most modern air filters on coal-burning power plants and catalytic converters on gas-burning vehicles, combustion of fossil fuels releases smoke and chemicals into the air. In areas with high concentrations of vehicles or power plants that burn fossil fuels, the air can become saturated with exhaust, reducing breathable air quality while reducing the aesthetic beauty of the area through smog and soot. Such conditions can cause drastic decreases in lung capacity over time and, depending on the specific chemicals and particulates in present, can cause chronic lung disease such as asthma, emphysema and cancer.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Fossil-fuel burning contributes to the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun, altering the ecology of widespread affected areas. Regional irregularities in climate conditions and weather patterns affect conditions in adjacent regions, spreading the ongoing disturbance until climate change affects the entire planet in unpredictable ways. Most noted among climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions is global warming, the gradual increase in the earth's atmospheric temperature by incremental degrees. The effects of these changes are easy to observe in delicate ecosystems, such as coral reefs, but can also be seen in more robust environments.

  As of 2010, forestry services in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and California have cataloged the decline of 500,000 acres of aspen trees due to the increased presence of parasites that thrive in warmer temperatures. Among these parasites is the aspen bark beetle, which was previously rare but now flourishes due to the temperature's effect on its breeding cycle. Birds and larger mammals are affected by the scale of this loss of trees, as are indigenous grasses which hold rainwater utilized by nearby metropolitan areas. Some diseases have also found new avenues of infection due to shifts in regional temperatures. In 2010, "The Quarterly Review of Biology" cited higher average temperatures as a contributing factor in an expansion of the Anopheles mosquito's habitat, carrying malaria into previously unaffected highland areas of east Africa, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

Nonrenewable Resources

• Fossil fuels are nonrenewable resources. Unlike alternative energies such as solar, wind and hydroelectric, coal and oil are created over millions of years and cannot be replaced at the rate we use them. The rarer these resources become, the more expensive they become. Not only do consumer prices increase, but environments are ravaged by mining done in pursuit of these diminishing resources. Inevitably, there will be too little left to acquire and use at our current level of consumption.

  According to projections made by University of Michigan researchers, the existing supply of oil could be diminished as early as 2025 if enough developing Third World nations adopt consumption practices similar to those of current industrialized nations. A more optimistic outlook projects depletion in the 2070s, assuming current levels of consumption by industrialized nations and only modest development in Third World countries.