Origins, Applications and Environmental Impacts Fossil Fuels Coal, oil and natural gas are called fossil fuels because they form from the organic remains of ancient plants and animals. Plants convert carbon dioxide, water and sunlight into organic compounds, which pass through the food chain. After death, most plants and animals rapidly decay to carbon dioxide and other products. The mining and burning of these materials may release millions of years of accumulated carbon into the atmosphere in a relatively short period of time. The buildup of carbon in the Earth's recent atmosphere creates concerns over the Greenhouse Effect .
Carbon dioxide allows light to reach the Earth's surface.
Increased concentrations of CO 2 prevent the heat from escaping into outer space, so that it collects on the Earth's surface and warms the world's climates. Warming climates may increase droughts and largely melt the ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, which will cause sea level to rise and drown coastal areas, possibly including large sections of entire countries, such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Natural gas is also much cleaner than coal or oil and does not contain the levels of sulfur, ash, and other potential pollutants that are frequently found in coal and oil. Eventually, the bottom sediments are buried either slowly or by catastrophic sediment flows created by storms, unstable slopes, flowing rivers or earthquakes. C, methane is the only significant hydrocarbon.