Religions from the dawn of recorded history worshiped the sun. Solar energy is the source of all life. Petrochemicals are created from solar energy banked millions of years ago from plants that captured sunlight and photosynthesized useful carbohydrates. Plants died in oxygen-depleted water where they couldn’t decay, for lack of oxygen, and were eventually absorbed into the earth’s crust where over a long period of time the pressure and temperature transformed them into crude oil and natural gas. When you burn a piece of wood in the fireplace, you’re releasing solar energy stored by the tree. Our varied diets are basically made up of solar energy stored in a variety of forms – meat, vegetables, candy bars and fruit juice – by plants and animals who originally accumulated that energy for their own use.
The energy in oil, like the energy in corn, like the energy in Chicken McNuggets, like the energy in coal, originated in the sun.
And the sun keeps shining, showering the earth with useful energy. All living things benefit.