Fuente: University of Arkansas blog of sustainability.
Los combustibles fósiles, como el carbón, el petróleo y el gas natural, son el fantasma del movimiento ecológico. Son conocidos por su gran cantidad de gases de efecto invernadero cuando se queman para obtener energía. Conduciendo a nuestro clima peligrosamente cambiante. Además de eso, los métodos utilizados para acceder a estas fuentes de combustible (que son el fracking, las arenas bituminosas y la minería extensiva) pueden ser significativamente dañinos para el medio ambiente
In other words, civilization’s addiction to fossil fuels is trashing and it’s poisoning our planet. But we are still leveraging them for energy! Let’s understand why…
No. 1: Eficiencia energética
One relevant fact about the fossil fuels is that they are fantastic at their job! That is, producing energy. Earth’s fossil fuels reserves were formed over millions of years as the organic material of plants and microorganisms were compressed and converted into deposits of carbon, basically reservoirs of condensed energy. That’s why the fuels are incredibly energy dense, which means a little bit of a fossil fuel can produce tons of energy for tons of places.
Esta cualidad de alta densidad energética hizo que Europa adoptara la madera en lugar del carbón como fuente de combustible.
No. 2: Comodidad
As said before, fossil fuels are the result of natural processes of millions of years. While it takes more time to transform wood into coal, these fossil fuels have passed this transformation time already and so, they are ready to be used. In order to unlock better sources of energy, first you need to think of the efficiency levels of each of these sources. This means that it’s key to understand the way they are collected, transformed and stored before you can even start to consider about using them. Fossil fuels, in the other hand, do not require innovation at all. So, the process of collecting and storing the energy into fossil fuels has already been accomplished. That’s why they are also known as “ready-made” because they can leverage their energy anywhere, anytime.
No. 3: Logística
El último factor que hace que los combustibles fósiles sean atractivos es el hecho de que han sido la principal fuente de energía en gran parte del mundo durante los últimos dos siglos. Puede que estos años no parezcan tan largos en el esquema de las cosas, pero estos 200 años fueron más importantes que la mayoría debido a la revolución industrial.