What are the negatives of fossil fuels?

Answer 1

There are two main disadvantages to fossil fuels:

1. A lot of them produce toxic gases when they are burnt.

- like coal etc which can contribute to global warming as it increases the greenhouse gases that trap the suns rays which warm us up.

- These gases can also be detrimental to human health - respiratory diseases etc.

It should also be noted that the drilling and shipping of oil has resulted in many very environmentally destructive oil spills. The importation of oil has damaged the US balance of trade and has enriched terrorists and despotic regimes such as that of Moammar Gadhaffi. Coal mining is very hazardous to coal miners and has resulted in many deaths.

2. They are generally unsustainable, this means that for resources like coal and oil they cannot regenerate themselves in a reasonable time span to replace themselves so they will eventually run out and without other sustainable technologies being used (e.g. wind or solar power) we will have no more fuel.