Why are fossil fuels useful?
Here’s it in a nutshell. Look at the attached links too for simple answers. Oil, petroleum, natural gas, gasoline, petrol, coal, coke: all these are types of what people call ‘fossil fuels’. So why are they called ‘fossil fuels’? Because, like fossils of shells or plants which you can find in some rocks, they are old, often hundreds of millions of years old. In fact, fossil fuels are part of the remains of living things which once flourished on the planet, but died and became buried under thick layers of younger rocks. Coal is the best example of this. If you pick up a lump of coal, it’s black and shiny. What made it? Occasionally, you’ll find a clue in the form of impressions of plants, usually tree trunks. For coal started out as lush tropical swampy forest, bursting with rapidly growing trees and smaller plants. As they died, more plants grew in the swamps, covering and burying the dead ones whose remains did not decay because they were soaked by stagnant water. No air could get at
