In ancient times, wood was the most common source of heat energy. The energy of flowing water and wind was also used for limited activities. Can you think of some of these uses? The exploitation of coal as a source of energy made the industrial revolution possible. Increasing industrialisation has led to a better quality of life all over the world. It has also caused the global demand for energy to grow at a tremendous rate. The growing demand for energy was largely met by the fossil fuels – coal and petroleum. Our technologies were also developed for using these energy sources. But these fuels were formed over millions of years ago and there are only limited reserves. The fossil fuels are non-renewable sources of energy, so we need to conserve them. If we were to continue consuming these sources at such alarming rates, we would soon run out of energy! In order to avoid this, alternate sources of energy were explored. But we continue to be largely dependent on fossil fuels for most of our energy requirements (Fig. 14.1). Burning fossil fuels has other disadvantages too. We learnt in Class IX about the air pollution caused by burning of coal or petroleum products. The oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur that are released on burning fossil fuels are acidic oxides. These lead to acid rain which affects our water and soil resources. In addition to the problem of air pollution, recall the green-house effect of gases like carbon dioxide.

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