Fossil fuels are the crushed remains of living things, it takes millions of years to create. It is formed when living things such as plants or animals die, are buried and decompose. The animal or plant’s remains eventually become hydrogen and carbon and this is why fossil fuels are hydrocarbons. The hydrogen and carbon is crushed because of the pressure underground, this process creates crude oil and natural gas. The main types of fossil fuels are natural gas, crude oil and coal.Today we use fossil fuels to provide us with electricity, gas to cook with and fuel for cars, planes, boats etc. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource, this means there is a finite amount and one day there will be none left. This is a serious problem we are facing at the moment. Mining in Australia is huge and we supply other countries with our coal and other minerals. If we were to run out and have no other equivalent power source the effect on not only Australia but the world would be catastrophic.