Ch. 25 Fossil Fuels Kill... Kind of a Lot

"...thanks to more rigorous science,

we can now see that fossil fuels

cause far more harm than previously understood." 

- Dr. Aaron Bernstein,

Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment
at Harvard Chan School

Our continued dependence on fossil fuels and Second Industrial Revolution technologies has a very real cost in human lives. But not just human lives. Every living thing on the Earth is negatively impacted by fossil fuel pollution and emissions.  

Fossil fuels kill.

Fossil fuels kill directly and indirectly. They are also responsible for the ecological changes that will continue to cause many more deaths and suffering. Unfortunately these impacts will be felt even years after we have ceased the use of all fossil fuels. 

Direct death and disease from fossil fuel use.

According to new research from Harvard University, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester and University College London, more than 8 million people died from fossil fuel pollution in 2018 alone. 

"Worldwide, air pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths - roughly the population of New York City."  (Environmental Research, 2021)

These deaths are due fine particulates and ozone air pollution, most of which are related to cardiometabolic conditions, heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary disease, hypertension etc. 

Air pollution also increases children's risk of asthma and other pulmonary diseases. 

There is no denying that fossil fuels are directly responsible for climate change.

"fossil fuels are the main source of greenhouse gases, the primary driver of climate change. In 2020, 91% of global CO2 emissions came from fossil fuels and industry."

"Fossil fuels are both the dirtiest and the most dangerous in the short term and emit the most greenhouse gases per unit of energy." (Ritchie, 2020)

Why is this important to note?

Because we are seeing an increase every year in the number of climate related deaths, which are indirectly caused by burning fossil fuels. 

 "At least 645 people in Maricopa County - home of Phoenix and many of its suburbs- died from heat-related causes last year, according to a preliminary report from its Public Health Department released Wednesday. The deaths represented a 52% increase over the previous year." (Bush, 2024)

Several states in the American South also experienced deadly "wet bulb" temperatures in the summer of 2023, the hottest summer the planet has seen in over 2000 years. (More on this later.)

We will absolutely see an increase in extreme weather deaths due to global warming in the coming years. 

But there are other environmental impacts which also lead to a loss of lives in the future.

More deadly environmental impacts of fossil fuel use.

The Alaskan crab season was cancelled for both 2022 and 2023 seasons due to warming waters caused by climate change. 

"'During the marine heatwave, snow crabs faced a triple threat,' said lead author and Alaska Fisheries Science Center stock assessment scientist Cody Szuwalski. 'Their metabolism increased, so they needed more food; their habitat was reduced so there was less area to forage; and crabs caught in our survey weighed less than usual.'"

As the waters warm, Alaskan crabs are experiencing habitat loss and mass starvation. 

There has been a series of massive fish die-offs around the world, due to water temperature increases and water shortages caused by global warming. 

One such die-off occurred in Vietnam during a brutal heat wave and drought in April of 2024. "The water in the lake was reportedly too low for the animals to survive as there has been no rainfall in weeks, according to AFP" (Orie, 2024)

Obviously large die-offs of fish and crab are a tragic development, but to keep the cascading impacts of this problem in perspective, it is also important to remember that fish and seafood are a major food source for much of the world. 

"Fish and other seafood products provide vital nutrients for more than three billion people around the globe and supply and income for 10 to 12 percent of the world's population." (The Nature Conservancy, 2021)

Of course, it's not just about fish and seafood. Big and small farmers all over the world are impacted by fossil fuel caused global warming.

"Climate change affects agriculture and those who rely on it by weakening environmental health, undermining production, wiping out crops, killing off livestock, making it more difficult to earn a living and extending the amount of time families must go without food." (Chandler, 2023)

The continued use of fossil fuels is threatening the health, safety and livelihood of everyone on the planet. But especially that of the working poor, who have made their living and fed their families for generations by farming the land and fishing the waters.

So this conversation brings up an interesting question...

Surely there is another source of energy that doesn't KILL quite so much?

Well let's see.

A brilliant article written by Hannah Ritchie (ourworldindata.org, 2020) outlines a thought experiment that examines the relative... let's call it, the "murder/death/kill rate" of each common form of energy. This thought experiment is based on an imaginary town in the European Union called "Euroville."

"Let’s consider how many deaths each source would cause for an average town of 150,000 people in the European Union, which — as I’ve said before — consumes one terawatt-hour of electricity per year. Let’s call this town ‘Euroville.'" (Ritchie, 2020)

The idea is to ask a question. If this imaginary town Euroville (pop: 150,000) was powered exclusively by one form of energy (coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, wind, nuclear, solar) what would the annual death toll be? (Including accidental deaths.)

Here are the findings:

• Coal - 25 deaths per year
• Oil - 18 deaths per year
• Natural gas - 3 deaths per year

And the death toll of renewables?

• Hydropower - 1 death per year
• Wind - 1 death every 25 years
• Nuclear - 1 death every 33 years
• Solar - 1 death every 50 years

If you and your family lived in Euroville, which energy source would you prefer?

Again. Fossil fuels kill... Kind of a lot. 

We'll talk about this more in Part 4: Ecology, but our continued use of fossil fuels is having, and will continue to have deadly consequences. Not just for us, but for every living thing on the planet. 

Our choice to keep this Second Industrial Revolution system in place is an ignorant and selfish decision that is causing global suffering every single day. And for what? So Rex Tillerson can buy a new ranch in Texas?

Isn't it time we honestly considered moving on to the Third Industrial Revolution? Isn't it time we moved past this ridiculously expensive, wildly inefficient, murder/death/kill system of energy? 

But what's the alternative, you ask?

Let's look at that in the next chapter.