Fossil Fuel Facts 1.3 million gallons of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. Petroleum fuels also leak from storage tanks thus contaminating groundwater and streams. The effects of spilled petroleum on marine organisms can be lethal. Even when organisms are not killed, oil fouling can reduce feeding efficiency, growth and reproductive rates, survival of offspring, and resistance to diseases. One gallon of motor oil can contaminate one million gallons of water and one quart of motor oil can create an oil slick at least two acres in size. On average, each American uses 448 gallons of motor oil in a lifetime. Toxic by-products of coal refining and combustion include mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals. Coal mining areas in Appalachia were found to have nearly 11,000 more deaths each year than other places in the nation, with 2,300 of those attributable to environmental factors such as air and water pollution. Razing Mountains - Since the mid-1990s, the coal industry has cut a swath of devastation through Appalachia's remote, coal-rich highlands, one of the nation's most dramatic cases of environmental devastation and regulatory failure. http://e360.yale.edu When water is drawn into a coal power plant, 21 million fish eggs, fish larvae, and juvenile fish may also come along with it -- and that's the average for a single species in just one year. Ozone pollution and climate change are fundamentally caused by the same activities - human beings burning fossil fuels. Ground-level ozone pollution exacerbates lung diseases such as asthma and can cause breathing difficulties even in healthy individuals. http://www.ucsusa.org It is estimated that at the current rate, the average annual surface temperature of the earth could increase 2-3 degrees Celsius by the end of the twenty-first century. This increase is enough to cause significant impact on human habitat and ecological systems. Our society would not survive without fossil fuels at the present. But it doesn't have to be that way forever. Now is the time to start planning a future without fossil fuels. Build your solar panel for less than $100. Get detailed plans with easy to follow instructions at Earth4Energy. Off Grid Energies Home