Fossil fuels

Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain in the 2^nd half of the 18th century, fossil fuels have been consumed at an ever-increasing rate.
Fossil fuel consumption has increased significantly over the past half-century, around 8-fold since 1950, and roughly doubling since 1980.

Today, fossil fuel industries drill or mine for these energy sources, burn them to produce electricity, or refine them for use as fuel for heating or transportation.
Over the past 20 years, nearly ³/₄ of human-caused emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels.

A small portion of hydrocarbon-based fuels are biofuels derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide, and thus do not increase the net amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil fuels, and nuclear energy can be a zero-carbon alternative for electricity generation.