FOssil Fuels

The burning of fossil fuels such as gas and coal are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and currently, the Earth has its highest levels of CO2 ever recorded. This means that the atmosphere is being heavily polluted, and not just by not just carbon dioxide, but other pollutants such as carbon monoxide, lead, nitrous oxide, bad ozone, particulates, and sulfur dioxide. Graph #1 (to the right) shows the carbon dioxide levels globally. The levels have gone up tremendously since the 1900’s due to the burning of fossil fuels. Around the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s the Industrial Revolution started digging in the ground due to factory production, causing the carbon in the lithosphere to be released into the atmosphere. The second graph (also to the right) shows the carbon dioxide levels by state, and how they have changed since 2008 to 2011. Graph #3 ( ALSO to the right) demonstrates how high the carbon dioxide levels have gone up, and currently, it is at its highest point. There is also such thing as natural climate change. When we exhale, we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere. We cannot help breathing. It is natural for us too, and it is nothing that we can change. Whats happening now is the carbon dioxide levels are not shrinking, they are continuing to ride. Before now, it was rising and shrinking.

Only about ⅕ of the world energy is clean, according to the GSR. (Global Status Report.) In 2016, North Carolina was the third largest producer of electricity generated from solar energy. Solar panels in North Carolina cost an estimated amount of $15,600. That’s why not many people are purchasing these useful items because they cost way too much. Many people not just in the US but in the world cannot afford that, but once that is all paid for, it saves us way more money because we would not be paying for electricity anymore.