In today's world, humans consume enormous amounts of fossil fuels. The world's top five oil-consuming countries are the usual suspects. These include the United States, China, Japan, India and Russia. Canada comes in 10th place with a daily consumption of 2,287,000 barrels per day. There are three main types of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. These resources were formed during the Carboniferous period, 360 to 286 million years ago. At that time the land was covered in swamps with large amounts of plants and waters filled with algae. When these plants and trees began to die, they formed layers of peat. Hundreds and thousands of years would go by adding sand and other materials to the peat. This formed the sedimentary rocks we know today. As thousands of years turned into millions of years, water in the peat layer was forced out of the peat until the diatom layer turned into coal, oil or natural gas (CCE, 2013). Canada has an oil industry throughout the country and currently 12 out of 13 provinces are active in the oil industry. Natural gas production takes place in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and New Brunswick. Natural gas could also become a big industry in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Oil production currently occurs in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador (CAPP, 2013). Coal is one of the most abundant fossil fuels in the world. Coal was formed during the Carboniferous period when dead plant matter was buried and subjected to high pressure and heat. Coal is classified according to its moisture content and composition. There are four d...... middle of paper ......a.ca/OilSands/793.aspOil Sands Today. Accessed 2013. http://www.oilsandstoday.ca/whatareoilsands/Pages/RecoveringtheOil.aspxKoster, Vera. 05/02/2013. What is shale gas? How does hydraulic fracturing work? Views of chemistry. http://www.chemistryviews.org/details/education/1316813/What_is_Shale_Gas_How_Does_Fracking_Work.htmlFracFocus. 2013. Hydraulic fracturing: the process. Frac Focus.http://fracfocus.org/hydraulic-fracturing-how-it-works/hydraulic-fracturing-processJenkins, Scott. 2012. Reuse of fracking water. Chemical Engineering. 119(2):14-16. Grottenhaler, David. 2011. Water recycling for hydraulic fracturing. Mechanical Engineering. 133(12):21-24.Canadian Energy Pipeline Association. Accessed 2013. http://www.cepa.com/about-pipelines/nomic-benefits-of-pipelines/nomic-factsTrans Canada. Accessed 2013. http://keystone-xl.com/about/the-project/