Fossil Fuels for Overly Confident Dummies

fossil fuels

Someone here, usually an intern, regularly checks our nominees to see whether the content is still live on the net. The folks at Leaf Group have pulled some of their more egregious crap (especially at HomeSteady.com), and at least one HubPages.com freelancer became ashamed of how many awards she'd collected. The nice people at Leaf have taken to sending some of their content to a cleanup team of "experienced freelancers" in hopes that the dross will be culled. As we've noticed, it isn't always... Here with another example is "noted environmentalist," if he does say so himself, David Sarokin with "What Are Three Examples of Fossil Fuels?"

Sarokin's assignment was to rewrite the near polemic pounded out under the same title by another self-described environmentalist, Alex Silbajoris. We will grant that Sarokin's version was closer to factual, seeing as it dd not include such utter bullshit as, "Fossil fuels are so named because their sources are not readily renewed like solar, wind or hydroelectric energy."  No, Dave got it right when he said,

"Fossil fuels are energy sources formed from the remains of living organisms..."

...but unfortunately, he missed the boat when he finished the sentence by saying,

"...that have been transformed into fuel by natural processes such as decomposition and pressure."

What's wrong with that? Simple: he left out heat, which is as important, if not more so, than pressure. Sarokin continued with his oversimplification of fossil fuels, telling his readers that,

"Fossil fuels are known as non-renewable fuel sources [because] once the fuel is consumed...there is no expectation that new fossil fuel will be created to replace it."

In truth, fossil fuels are being created as we read this. The "nonrenewable-ness" of fossil fuels is because the pace of replacement is many orders of magnitude slower than the pace of use. Get it right, Dave.

Also get other things right, such as,

"Wells can be sunk on dry ground, in shallow near-shore waters or in the deep, open ocean."

Ummm, no, not in the "deep, open ocean." There is no petroleum production outside the continental shelves. Only a few wells are in more than 3 km of water; while the average depth of the ocean basins is around 4 km. And then there's,

"Natural gas is typically extracted from the ground at the same sites where petroleum is found."

Not so. Natural gas is sometimes associated with liquid petroleum, but is just as often (if not more often) independent of liquids. And how about,

"[Natural] gas is processed and transported either by truck, ship or pipeline for use in factories and homes."

Yeah, like we have a ship pulling up to AN headquarters to refuel our gas water heater! Transportation by truck and ship is only possible after the gas is liquefied. Otherwise, it travels by pipeline. And last but not least,

"Coal mining is still active, however, and is a major source of fossil fuel use..."

We doubt that the mining of coal is a "major source of fossil fuel use." Nope, it's just a major source of coal. Duh.

All said, Sarokin's work could have benefited from careful proofreading by a knowledgeable editor. Too bad our Dumbass of the Day didn't have one...

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