[JeanLM]

So now where did all that carbon buried for 300+ million years come from? It came from the CO2 that the forest inhaled and then converted into the stuff of life and now energy.

CO2 is the source of life and energy, not a poison.

[aruanan]

So now where did all that carbon buried for 300+ million years come from? It came from the CO2 that the forest inhaled and then converted into the stuff of life and now energy.

There are relatively few fossils in coal. It is mostly carbon. The isotope ratios of various elements do not support the idea of coal as having originated from buried, compressed plant material.