The Impact of Burning Fossil Fuels on Earth’s Weight: A Perspective

Burning fossil fuels does not completely eliminate them from existence; instead, it converts them into water, carbon dioxide, and ash. While a small fraction of the mass is released into the atmosphere as hydrogen or used in space missions, the majority remains on Earth.

Despite the vast amount of fossil fuel reserves on Earth – approximately 1.5 trillion tonnes – this represents only a tiny fraction of the planet’s overall mass. To put this into perspective, burning all fossil fuels would result in losing less than one ten-billionth of one per cent of Earth’s weight. This highlights how insignificant the loss of fossil fuels would be in terms of the planet’s overall weight.

In fact, shedding an eyelash results in losing 500 times more body weight proportionally than burning fossil fuels does to Earth’s mass. This demonstrates just how negligible the impact of using all fossil fuels would be on Earth’s weight.

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