Three Hundred Elephants in a Gas Tank
Ferris Jabr:
We’ve known for more than a century that fossil fules are combustible crypts containing the power of countless deceased life forms that collectively absorbed hundreds of millions of years of sunlight. Environmental scientist and policy analyst Vaclav Smil has calculated that a single gallon of gasoline represents one hundred tons of ancient life, roughly equal to twenty adult elephants. Every sedan with a typical fifteen-gallon of gas tank demands the equivalent of three hundred elephants simply to keep running. Fossil fuels are not just conveniently concentrated forms of energy — they are outrageously extravagant. A fossil fuel is essentially an ecosystem in an urn.
Becoming Earth: How our Planet Came to Life, p. 199.