What Are Fossil Fuels

What are fossil fuels? Fossil fuels are the single most important, non-replenishable resource this world has to offer. Wars have been fought, and recent wars have been staged in order to gain control over this extremely valuable resource. But, what exactly are fossil fuels, and why are they so important? Put it this way. If all fossil fuels dissapeared today, all of mankind would be punted back to the Stone Age. Seriously.

It's not that fossil fuels are non-replenishable, it's that they take so long to replenish, millions and millions of years or so, that during humans' existence on the planet, there is only a limited supply to work with. Fossil fuels started forming long before the first T-Rex had his first meal on this planet. It literally took hundreds of millions of years for the fossil fuels you have today to come into existence.

Fossil fuels are made up of complex chemical chains of carbon. The three main forms of fossil fuels are, of course, coal, oil, and natural gas. The reason why you need to know about fossil fuels is simply this. Americans rely on fossil fuels to provide more than 85 percent of all the energy used in the U.S. They also provide over two-thirds of all the electricity Americans use. You already know just how important fossil fuels are to creating transportation fuels. If not, look outside your window and look at those skyrocketing gas prices.  

Yes, fossil fuels are the backbone of any industrialized nation. Without these precious fuels, most modernized countries would collapse in a rather short amount of time. Think about it. With no fossil fuels, you can't make gas for the cars, trains and planes. Your once wide range of travel would be shut down to a local level. Without fossil fuels you can't heat your homes or turn on a TV or log on to the internet because you'd have no power.

The day the United States can't get its hands on fossil fuels is the day you'd better pull that old butter churn out of the barn.