Fossil Fuels: Introduction
Stretched end to end, the number of barrels of oil the world uses in just one year would circle the equator 650 times. Oil supplies about a third of the world’s energy and its demand is increasing. Some experts argue that we can keep up with this increasing demand. They suggest we will discover new oil deposits and have improved drilling technologies that will help us access more oil. Others point out that for every barrel of new oil discovered, three to four barrels are consumed. The world consumed nine times more oil than the oil industry discovered from 2000 to 2005.
Fossil fuels provide the energy necessary for much of the world’s economies. Read on to see how these fuels are formed, where they exist, the size of the supply for each, and some of the arguments for and against future use of fossil fuel resources.
