Question

Burning of fossil fuels causes:
(A) Air pollution
(B) Water pollution
(C) Both air and water pollution
(D) None of these

Answer 1

Hint: Fossil fuel is the general term for the buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth’s crust over a 100 million years ago. Burning of fossil fuels release oxides of carbon and nitrogen.

Complete Answer
As the fossil fuels are composed of dead and decayed animal and plant matter, so the major constituents of the fossil fuels are carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. So when these fossil fuels are burnt in air then they liberate a huge amount of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors to the green-house effect and global warming across the world. In the absence of sufficient air, carbon monoxide is formed instead of carbon dioxide which is more harmful than carbon dioxide. Besides these there are some fossil fuels which are themselves contributors to the growing green-house effect which are methane and ethane.
As the burning of fossils are major contributors to the green-house effect and global warming, hence, Burning of fossil fuels causes Air pollution. But this pollution is not only limited to the atmosphere, the release of harmful sulphur dioxide gases along with the burning of fossil fuel causes acid rain which pollutes the water bodies as well causing water pollution.
So option C, both air and water pollution is the correct answer.

Note
In order to stop the growing air pollution that is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, these non-renewable or conventional sources of energy are being replaced by the renewable sources of energy such as the wind energy, solar energy, thermal energy, tidal energy, etc.