Fossil Fuels: Nature’s Solar Batteries

By Gregory Wrightstone

As a subscriber to the work of the CO2 Coalition, you likely share our appreciation of the many benefits of CO2. But are you aware that oil, gas and coal are the direct result of nature harnessing the power of the primordial sun via the process of photosynthesis?

Most realize that coal (that provided 25% of all energy globally in 2022) is the result of trees and plants. The carbon that we are now liberating was originally captured from carbon dioxide removed from the air via photosynthesis, deeply buried and converted to coal.

Oil and gas provided another 52% of global energy in 2022, but few are aware of the origin of these fossil fuels.

The source of oil and gas is also originally from sun-powered photosynthesis. In the ancient oceans, certain basins had recurring algal blooms that bloomed, died and fell to the primeval seafloor. The algae were photosynthesis-driven phytoplankton that accumulated over the many millennia as layers of organic-rich muds. These layers were tens or hundreds of feet thick. They were buried deeply, and the thermogenic heat converted the organics first to oil and with higher temperatures to natural gas.

Based on this information, we can correctly refer to fossil fuels as natural solar-powered energy or, if you like, giant solar energy storage batteries!

Note: Oil and gas are NOT abiotic. That theory was quite thoroughly debunked many decades ago but still lives on in internet postings.

The above material was drawn from my upcoming new book, A Very Convenient Warming – How Modest Warming and More CO2 are Benefiting Humanity, that will be published in late October 2023.