Emily Armitage 7014

Controlled Coursework-Part 2

Energy in the 21 Century Fossil Fuels

Introduction

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The purpose of this enquiry is to research fossil fuels in the 21st century and how the world uses different resources. To help me to do this, I will be looking mainly at 3 key concepts. These are as follows The demand for energy is linked to levels of development Increasing demand raises questions about global energy security The exploitation of fossil fuels can create environmental problems. To help me to do this, there are a number of key terms that I will be referring to within the project. The main terms I will be concentrating on are Fossil fuels- A fuel formed in the earth from plant or animal remains Renewable energy- Can be used again Non Renewable energy- Can only be used once Finite resources- Limited in quantity Fossil fuels are fuels that are formed from resources in the earth or the remains of dead animals but which cant be used again. The following diagram explains how fossil fuels are formed. Fossil fuels take millions of years to form. When plants and animals die, they are immediately covered by sediment in seas or swamps which stops them from decaying. Further layers of sediment burry the plant and animal remains deeper and deeper. After millions of years, with the help of pressure and incredible heat (900C to 1200C) the remains turn into oil, coal and natural gas. Coal comes mainly from dead plants, such as trees, falling into swamps. Oil and gas tend to occur together and are formed from both plants and animals being buried. When we burn fossil fuels, we are using the suns energy that has been stored as chemical energy underground for millions of years.

Renewable Energy is like the opposite of a fossil fuel. Unlike fossil fuels, which can only be used once and are then gone renewable energy can be used again and again as much as we need to. The energy is created by using natural resources such as wind power or wave power. This means that we have infinite access to this energy and it will never ever run out.

In the world, we use fossil fuels for many different things and in some ways, we almost depend on them in our everyday life. Fossil fuels are a type of Non-Renewable Energy. If fossil fuels were to run out, there would be many things in our everyday lives that we would struggle to do. The diagram below shows that practically everything that we have around our homes are made by using oil in some way, shape or form.
One of the most common uses of oil are petrochemicals. The most popular of these are man-made fibres which can be woven into curtains and carpets. Man-made fibres tend to look better so are very commonly used. Most of them dont Most medicines are absorb water, so mold and mildew are far less manufactured from common.

chemicals containing petroleum products.

Many dyes in paints and also plastic based paints are made from petrochemicals containing oil. Ethylene is one of the byproducts of distilling oil. It can be made extremely soft to make camera film.

Candle wax is another petroleum product made from oil.

Many fertilizers contain oil products. Many soapless detergents contain oil products.

Cds and tapes are made using petrochemicals, as are the plastics used in cd players.

Lots of additives that are used in food preservation contain oil.

Plastic bottles are made from the same petrochemicals to fibre.

Many man-made fibres are made using chemicals that come from oil. These fibres are used for so many things in a house including rugs and carpets.

Synthetic and rubber products come from more petroleum products.

The dyes that are used in pen ink come from oil products.

Demand For Energy

The demand for energy in the world is growing. This graph shows which countries have the highest rate of growth. It is clear to see that most countries arent growing very much, however, the oil consumption in Asia pacific has almost doubled. This suggests that the countries that have the highest growth in demand are the developing countries. The following map shows where in the world has the most oil reserves left. It is clear to see that the places that use the most oil and the countries that have the most oil are very different. This is causing major issues in the world because as places are developing, they want to use more oil which means they arent selling it as cheaply. This then means that all of the worlds oil is rising in price and many countries can end up in debt as a result.

The amount of Fossil Fuels, in this case oil, is not evenly spread around the world. The main energy reserves are held in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia holding the greatest single amount. At 264.3 billion barrels. After this, the next largest reserves are in Canada with 178.8 million barrels. There are also some areas of the world without significant reserves remaining, such as Europe. Certain areas of Europe have no oil at all yet these are some of the areas that have the highest demand for energy in the world.

The graph on the previous page shows how the demand for oil varies throughout the world. It also demonstrates how the demand has changed from 2008-2009. By looking at the data, the map shows that the highest demand for energy comes mainly from MEDCs. This is because they have more money than LEDCs and therefore, have more uses for the oil. The map shows however, that the countries that have the highest increase in demand for energy are the LEDCs. This causes issues in the world as the places that previously needed the most had no problems as they could just get it from areas such as the Middle East, however, because places in the Middle East are now using more and more oil so places such as Europe are struggling to get the oil that they require and so are ending up in major debt.

This graph shows how fossil fuel consumption in the whole world has grown from 1950-2003. The consumption has pretty much grown every 10 years apart from in the early 1980s where there was a slight dip. The overall growth has been about 4 times from 2000 million tones to just over 8000 million tones. These figures are slightly worrying as they suggest that the consumption of fossil fuels is likely to increase in the forthcoming years and this will cause great issues in the world as there will soon simply not be enough fossil fuels for what we need. The biggest growth was from 1960-1980 where the consumption grew from 3000 million tones to just over 6000 million tones. The growth then steadied slightly and didnt rise by too much but looking at the graph, it looks as though there has been a steep rise in consumption from 2000 and this suggests the trend for the next few years.

This graph shows the link between a 14000 countries level of 12000 development and the 10000 amount of energy it 8000 uses. From the graph 6000 4000 we can see that there is 2000 a weak positive 0 correlation between the 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 2 values. This means GNI that generally, as countries GNI increases, the energy that they use also increases. There are certain exceptions where a point doesnt fit, for example, the country that has the highest energy use isnt the country with the highest GNI. This suggests that MEDCs use more energy than LEDCs and is probably because they have more uses of oil and other fossil fuels, such as factories, clothing and DIY materials. In the future, this may change as LEDCs develop and therefore begin to use more and more products that use fossil fuels. A large amount of the energy that is getting used in Nonrenewable and we only have a finite amount. The world could have huge issues if this trend carries on and the GNI of a country increases.
A scat ergraph t show t link bet t o he ween GNI and Energy Us e

How will energy use change in the future? I feel that in the future the world is going to end up with massive issues regarding energy use. It seems as though many countries are developing very rapidly and are using more and more energy. As the world develops, there are more and more everyday activities that will become impossible without a huge quantity of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a finite resource and the world cant keep using the amount that we are. If we carry on using the sheer amounts that we are, its not going to last much longer. More are more people are driving and there isnt going to be enough fuel left to carry this on for more that a couple of decades. It seems as though, the world as a whole needs to develop ways of using renewable energy to replace fossil fuels. This needs to include finding ways of using wind, water and solar power to do the jobs that we rely on oil for. It also means having to find different ways of making clothes that doesnt use oil. The worlds oil is going to run out soon but we dont have to just accept that we need to live in a world without oil, together we must find ways of reserving what we are using and finding alternatives.

Energy Use

Environmental issues There are many issues associated with using fossil fuels. Most of these are environmentally linked, including acid rain, global warming and flooding. Acid Rain Acid rain happens when emissions from cars, factories and other burned fossil fuels enter the atmosphere. These emissions get mixed up with the clouds and when it rains, the harmful gases rain down onto the earth and ruin the environment. This can cause erosion of stone, paint to peel and corrosion of steel structures.

Global Warming The earth is naturally warmed by radiation from the sun which passes through the earth's atmosphere and is then reflected back out to space again. The atmosphere is made up of layers of gases which make a thermal blanket over the Earth. This lets some of the radiation back out of the atmosphere, keeping the earth at the right temperature for animals, plants and humans to survive. This means that some global warming is a good thing but if too many greenhouse gases are made, the thermal blanket gets too thick and too much heat is kept inside the earths atmosphere. This is when global warming is bad and it can cause all sorts of issues such as flooding, melting ice caps, rising sea levels and animals becoming extinct. Should we continue to use Fossil Fuels?

There are many different views on the issue of fossil fuels. Some people agree entirely with using these fuels whereas there are other groups that think using fossil fuels is a very bad idea and we shouldnt continue to do it. Endoil The company endoil has a website that talks about their views. They are very against the use of fossil fuels and have many different reasons for this. The reasons are. Fossil fuels cause environmental issues. This includes issues such as global warming, greenhouse gases, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and climate pattern shifts. Fossil fuels violate human rights in countries that produce oil. In certain countries that produce oil, people that live in the country arent allowed to use oil that they produce because it all needs to be sold onto bring in money for the country. Fossil fuels cause wars and conflicts. Conflict occurs because different countries are all striving to get the most oil, the countries that produce it dont want to give it away due to lack of production and the lower ranked countries struggle to maintain the status. The fossil fuel business makes too much money. The business of oil is conducted in secret, behind closed doors, using money from the government and normal people and is often ripe with corruption and exploitation of both people and the environment. Greenpeace Greenpeace is another organisation that doesnt agree with the use of fossil fuels. Although they have the same overall opinion as Endoil, the reasons for this are very different. He main views from Greenpeace are Leave the oil in the ground. If we just leave the oil in the ground where it belongs it means that we can prevent any spills or other similar issues relating to extracted oils. Workers lose their lives. Often in the industry relating to fossil fuels, workers can be seriously injured or even killed. This can be by working in coal mines or from issues relating to oil spills. Shell Shell is a petrol company that strongly supports the use of fossil fuels. They have almost opposite views to those of Greenpeace so is a good one to look at. Shell has installed brand new technology that doesnt harm the environment. This means that the drilling does not harm marine life as oil spills are prevented due to the new technology used. Shell believes that oil spills arent only caused by extraction companies so the spills could still happen even when we werent actually extracting the oil which goes against Greenpeaces point of oil extraction causing oil spills.

Bibliography
Front cover http://www.morganmay.co.uk/renewable.html Definitions Fossil Fuels-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fossil%20fuel Non Renewable energy- AQA GCSE Geography B text book page 208 Renewable energy- AQA GCSE Geography B text book page Finite-AQA GCSE Geography B text book page 207 How are fossil fuels formed http://savingplanetearth.co.uk/Fossil%20Fuels.htm Uses of oil http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/uses/uses_home.html Oil consumption by region http://www.iaconoresearch.com/BlogImages/08-06-12b_oil_consumption.png Oil: Whats left? http://www.oil-world-2011.com/about/uncategorized/oil-reserves Oil Consumption round the world http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/09/bp-energy-statisticsconsumption-reserves-energy#zoomed-picture World fossil fuel consumption growth http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/images/world-fossil-fuel-consumption.jpg Energy use and development graph data http://vle.heatonmanor.newcastle.sch.uk/index.phtml? d=471431&&event=show_links:471471-2&arg_list=1012831 Environmental issues Acid Rain-http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climateweather/atmospheric/acid-rain.htm Global warming-http://effectsglobalwarming.org/?p=87 Global warming information-http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi /find_out/ guides/world/global_warming/newsid_1575000/1575457.stm Fossil Fuel opinions Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace.org/ End oil www.endoil.org Shell- www.shell.com/