New Study Claims One Gallon of Gas = 98 Tons of Prehistoric Plants
A recent University of Utah study suggests that over 196,000 pounds of prehistoric plant material is required to produce just one gallon of gasoline.
"Fossil fuels developed from ancient deposits of organic material, and thus can be thought of as a vast store of solar energy" that was converted into plant matter by photosynthesis, according to ecologist Jeff Dukes, author of the study. "Using published biological, geochemical and industrial data, I estimated the amount of photosynthetically fixed and stored [by ancient plants] carbon that was required to form the coal, oil and gas that we are burning today."
The study highlights the unsustainable nature of fossil fuel consumption and the need to explore energy alternatives like wind and solar.
The study will be published in the November edition of the journal Climatic Change.
You can also reference an in-depth review from The American Association for the Advancement of Science.