The Negative Impacts of Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuels provide more than 85 percent of the energy consumed in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy. Fossil fuels are organic chemicals made when organisms are buried in sediments and high pressure and temperatures concentrate to transform them into fuel. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are all fossil fuels that are non-renewable resources, meaning that they that cannot be quickly or easily replenished. Using these fuels affects the environment, human health and even world politics.

Environmental

• Mining and drilling for fossil fuels impacts the environment, and the wastes that are discharged during the processing and refining operations, as well as greenhouse gases made when the fuels are burned, have contributed to global warming. Large-scale climate change can disrupt the food chain, cause flooding and severe weather such as drought, floods and violent storms. Global climate change can cause agricultural areas to become too hot to sustain crops. If food sources dwindle due to global climate change, nations will begin to fall into unrest. Starvation will be rampant and an overall decrease in living standards will occur in many countries.

Public Health

• The use of fossil fuels not only puts more carbon dioxide into the air than the land and sea can absorb, it also releases toxic chemicals that cause lung disease. Fine particle emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels are inhaled deep into the lungs and may even enter the bloodstream, which causes premature death in people. The inhalation can trigger heart attacks by changing heart rates and causing irregular heartbeats. Lung ailments are another concern, including asthma attacks, coughing, shortness of breath or chronic lung disease in children.

Political Complications

• Barney L. Capehart writes in his book "Encyclopedia of Energy Engineering and Technology," that "fossil fuels cannot continue indefinitely as the principal energy sources due to the rapid increase of world energy demand and energy consumption. Fossil fuel reserves account for less than 40 years of petroleum, 60 years of natural gas, and 250 years for coal. As the global demand for energy increases, these figures will decrease, and so will global stability as conflict breaks out due to fossil fuel shortages." These conflicts include continuous hikes in energy prices, local energy conflicts and social problems. As nations attempt to defend their own fossil fuel reserves, international tensions and cultural conflicts could erupt.

Poor Communities

• Poor and minority communities are affected by air pollution the most because they tend to live closer to sources of air pollution. Institutions like the World Bank fund polluting coal and oil projects and justify it by saying that it increases the poor's access to energy. According to Oil Change International's Elizabeth Bast, the poor not only suffer the climate impacts of increased fossil fuel emissions and impacts from local pollution, they are also not receiving the energy from the same projects that are damaging their livelihoods.