SLO 3 - Major Rock Types

The Impact of Fossil Fuels Throughout History

Despite having been used for thousands of years, with research dating back as far as cavemen using fossil fuels like coal for heating, there are a few more recent eras in history where these hydrocarbon materials left a much larger and more dangerous mark on the Earth.

After the cavemen, archaeologists found that the Romans in England during the second and third centuries were also big users of fossil fuels. Then came indigenous peoples who used coal for pottery, as well as for heat. Even more recent, came what we all know as the industrial revolution, with its development of machines like the steam engine.

The industrial revolution was a period of major change for our planet, in which handicraft and agrarian economies shifted to industry and machine manufacturing. It originated first in Europe around the 18th century and promptly spread throughout the rest of the world when word got out of its success. The impact it had was mostly in the socioeconomic, cultural, and technological sense, which was no easy feat for the era that it was first introduced in. There were many materials used that could be traced back to geology, including more prominent ones like steel, iron, petroleum, and coal. The reason these stand out particularly is thanks to the effects they had on not only the environment, but also on the world as we know it today.

Although this new industry allowed for agricultural improvements, as well as new and heightened developments of communication and travel such as transportation vehicles, it was equally as effective when it came to the decline of land and negative political changes. Cities were growing faster than the distribution of wealth, creating an even larger gap between social economic ladders. With international trade also at an increase, it put a heavier load on factory workers who were already becoming sick as a consequence of working with toxic materials. In fact, there are many diseased from this time that could be traced back to the dangerous consumption of coal dust alone, not to mention all the other polluted air they were breathing.

In fact, one of the most prolific events in the history of Europe dealing with the consequence of air pollution, was the Great Smog of London. This occurred during the month of December in 1952, and lasted roughly four excruciating days. It catastrophically ended the lives of over 4,000 people, most of whom were either incredibly young or very old, leaving other affected victims with life-long health issues. It was worse than anything the city had ever experienced before, and led to the passing of the clean air act of 1956.

With the eventual creation of the infamous steam engine came even more issues that concerned the argument of pollution and its effects on people and the environment. The machine not only paved the way for other more extreme climate-affecting developments, like the internal-combustion engine, but it also changed transportation forever. Without it, we likely would not have airplanes or automobiles, which were successful only thanks to their railroad and sea transportation predecessors. It isn’t difficult to see why these creations were all the rage back then since the people in favor of these changes were also the least likely to suffer for them.

Great examples of this can be found in the ways in which petroleum, or crude oil, was used then and how it paved the way for its uses in modern day industries. The machines created during this time were becoming expensive and slow, so when it was discovered that petroleum was a cheap alternative to powering their mechanics, it was adopted immediately. This meant that as high demand grew for automobile vehicles, so did mass production, and in turn, the even more excessive use of fossil fuels.

To this day the staggering effects fossil fuels have continue to grow. Energy conservation is slowly becoming nonexistent, with everyone being more preoccupied with keeping their "essentials," like cell phones, televisions, cars, and airplanes running, more than the planet they reside on. Even trains are still around making noise and using up fossil fuels like there is no tomorrow, and there might not be in the next hundred years if we don't take a step back and slow down on how much we abuse them.

(Source: Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption by Simon Pirani)