Perhaps it is too simple to say that all the coal, oil and gas (fossil fuels) originates from the vast forests produced during the Carbon Time which extends the time between 359-299 million years ago.
There are a number of theories about how fossil fuels are actually created. The most widespread is that many of the plants, algae and plankton which were produced during this period did not decay again, but has given origin to the coal, oil and gas.
The main terrestrial plant varieties were not trees as we are used to seeing them but it was enormous horsetail plants, fern and club mosses. Much larger than the variations we see in our forests today.
Oil and gas is considered mainly to originate in algae and plankton when they die sunk to the seabed. There they have not broken down but formed huge warehouse sediments. These sediments are then under pressure and temeparatur converted into oil and natural gas.
The parallel to the today's oxygen-free sea-bottoms is easy to make, where the dead algae and plankton does not break down but creating thick mats of dead material.
So if the the theory is right, it is these hydrocarbons, the main components of fossil fuels, which we now released into the atmosphere again.
We are not creating something that has not been there before, just changing the rules for the current life forms on the planet.
Including us.
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