The crux of our problem is the rising use of fossil fuels. These nonrenewable sources of energy include petroleum, natural gas and coal. In the past decade and one-half the United States populace has become a gluttonous user of unimaginable amount of oil and its by-products. Within the last ten years, we have widened the gap between our production and our use. We are using more and more and producing less and less. We have an abundant supply of coal, however, our factories, transportation system and power plants do not run on coal in most instances. Professor D. Allan Bromley of Yale University estimated that at our 1977 usage rate we have in the United States 1500 years supply of coal, 24 years of oil and 48 years of natural gas.
These sources of energy are called fossil fuels because they developed millions of years ago from animal and vegetable matter buried deep under the earth’s surface. They are considered non-renewable sources due to the finite quantities available.
Also, a word can be said about the enormous use of oil. In this country our different modes of transportation, much of our heating supplies and many of our industrial complexes are almost exclusively dependent on oil or its by-product, gasoline. Within the students’ scope, this can be listed in any number of ways. Immediately they will think of cars, trucks, buses, airplanes and the thousands of houses, factories, school buildings and apartment houses that either run on gasoline or are heated by oil.
