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Fossil fuels include oil formed out of organic matter deposited and decomposed under the earth's surface for a very long time.

Some of the advantages of oil are -

* Easily combustible, and produces high energy upon combustion helping in locomotion and in the generation of electricity and various other forms of energy;

* Widely and easily distributed all over the world through rail and sea tankers * Comparatively inexpensive due to large reserves and easy accessibility * Good availability * Inexpensive

* Very large amounts of electricity can be generated in one place using oil, fairly cheaply.

* Oil-fired power stations are very efficient.

* An oil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere, so long as you can get large quantities of fuel to it.

However, the important issue as of now is whether there are more advantages than disadvantages of fossil fuels !

Some disadvantages of oil are that -

* it is non-renewable and fast depleting; * burning it releases carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, that had been stored in the earth for millions of years

* it leaves behind harmful by-products upon combustion, thereby causing a lot of pollution; * mining of oil leads to irreversible damage to the adjoining environment; * Oil spills as well as evaporation and fumes pollutes the environment; * Used oil is difficult to recycle. * The price of oil is rising, especially if the real cost of its carbon is included. * Burning it produces carbon dioxide, a major cause of global warming.

=== === The basic problem with coal and other carbon based fuels in not really that they release carbon-- it is that the carbon they release is not then quickly and efficiently absorbed by some other process, eliminating it from the atmosphere. We are taking unimaginably huge quantities of carbon, stored away for eons, and pouring it into the air. It will remain there for eons more, until the earth goes through more of its own balancing cycles. http://sciencedata.blogspot.com/

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