Fossil Fuels are formed from the decomposition of buried dead organisms (plants and animals) over millions of years. Oil, natural gas and coal are used for heat, electricity, transportation, and are in thousands of everyday products. The problem with fossil fuels is that when burned, they release harmful pollutants. The release of carbon dioxide contributes to global warming. The release of sulfur dioxide, from burning coal, contributes to acid rain. Nitrogen oxide contributes to acid rain and smog. Particulate matter, or soot, produces haze. Mercury emitted from coal plants leads to neurological effects. Methane emissions include leaks from natural gas and coal mining. These emissions lead to health issues and death as well as damage to nature.

Fossil fuels contribute to more than half of global warming.

Power plants contribute to water stress since these facilities draw tremendous amounts of water. The return of this water from the plant back to rivers, lakes and oceans creates thermal pollution. The water returned is much hotter and contains less dissolved oxygen thus stressing marine life.

In addition, fossil fuels are nonrenewable. The supply is limited unlike energy obtained from the sun, wind, hydropower, geothermal, or biomass sources.

Petroleum products do not break down like organic materials do. Plastics will take more than 1000 years to decompose. Even when they decompose, they turn to microplastics which never disappear. Microplastics can be smaller than a pencil eraser. The ultimate expression of the pollution of plastics is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California in the Pacific Ocean. This swirl of plastic garbage is the size of Texas. There are four other whirlpools of debris in our oceans: one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and one other in the Pacific Ocean. Animals are harmed by these patches; they get entangled and ingest the debris. Humans ingest fish that ingest microplastics posing a threat to human health.