Why are fossil fuels bad?
1 Answer
Consider hydrocarbon combustion. It turns biomass (i.e. fixed carbon) into gaseous
Explanation:
The world's hydrocarbon reserves were laid down by forests in past eras. Of course, now we use these hydrocarbons as an energy source to drive our motors.
I will use combustion of hexanes as an example:
As a triatomic molecule, carbon dioxide is very efficient at storing energy (much more so than diatomic dioxygen and dinitrogen. Why? Because the linear triatom has more degrees of freedom). Our industrial society is busy replacing fixed hydrocarbon reserves with gaseous
Of course there are many other nuances and factors to consider (and no doubt you will hear some).