Lesson 15: Energy Use

and Fossil Fuels

Can you imagine what Alberta must have looked like millions of years ago? Much of the land was covered with forests and other vegetation. The rest was covered by water. There was abundant life. When organisms died, their remains accumulated in stagnant swamps. Over time, land sank or seas rose, covering the swamps. Energy from the sun captured by those ancient organisms was transformed and is still available for us to use.

Today, we rely heavily on the remains of those ancient forests and long-dead organisms. From their remains, we produce gasoline and diesel to fuel motor vehicles. We transform energy stored as coal and natural gas into electric energy.

 

 

This image depicts a coal-forming forest from the Carboniferous period about 360,000 to 290,000 million years ago.