Fossil Fuels

Apr 2, 2025 by GlobalPossibilities

Fossil fuel pollution is causing disease, disaster, and extinction

For too long, the oil and gas industry has had the green light to continue to expand when we know its

risk to public health, the climate, and the environment. We must transition from fossil fuels to a world

pollution and our future from catastrophic climate change.

According to the American Lung Association, 40% of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution.

What are the risks of fossil fuels?

Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas releases toxic pollution into the atmosphere that causes health problems, traps heat in the atmosphere, and causes global climate change. The United Nations describes climate change as a series of long-term temperature and weather pattern shifts. This shift isn’t happening naturally – it’s largely driven by human activity of burning fossil fuels.

Our reliance on fossil fuels is cranking up the volume on environmental chaos.

The fossil fuel industry’s climate pollution is escalating wildfires, raising sea levels, strengthing hurricanes, increasing flood frequency, and sending heatwaves to record-breaking temperatures. What were once rare, extreme weather events are now becoming the norm. Burning fossil fuels also pollutes our air and water, putting our families at risk of asthma, respiratory disorders, lung cancer, pregnancy complications, and much more.

The number of cases filed against fossil fuel companies each year has nearly tripled since the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015, highlighting a growing global movement to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their role in the climate crisis.

Fracking releases methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that traps heat 80 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

What is “natural gas?”

“Natural gas” is what the fossil fuel industry calls methane gas to make it sound safer for the environment and our health. It is a fossil fuel you can’t see or smell and is the main component of gas extracted by fracking. The methane in fracked gas is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to our climate crisis when released into the atmosphere. Though initially marketed as “clean burning,” the methane used to power gas stoves in homes releases 21 toxic chemicals that cause health issues, even premature death. Currently, this fossil fuel accounts for about 30% of the energy used in the United States.

Is “natural gas” better for the environment?

No. The fossil fuel industry is using the same playbook as Big Tobacco by misleading the public, hiding information, and funding research through front groups trying to cover up the harms of methane gas. Methane is the primary component of fracked gas, which is a potent greenhouse gas. In fact, methane absorbs 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, rapidly warming the planet and exacerbating climate chaos.

Make no mistake: fracked gas is not a bridge fuel towards a better climate, it is standing in the way of real clean energy and a safer future.

8.7M

deaths per year from air pollution

120M

Americans breathe unhealthy air

Fossil fuel activity occurs disproportionately in communities of color

and on or near Indigenous lands

A study in Environmental Research found that air pollution from fossil fuels is responsible for

nearly one in every five deaths worldwide. Fossil fuel pollution is not only fueling the climate

crisis also kills more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.

This burden falls disproportionately on communities of color who are subject to environmental racism.

Victory!

Sierra Club has worked to retire coal plants all over the country and move our energy systems towards more renewable sources. To date, nearly two-thirds of plants online in 2009 have retired or committed to retiring. Of the 25 plants the NAACP identified as being most harmful to black and brown communities, 24 have retired or announced their retirement before 2030. Studies suggest the pollution reduction from these closed plants has prevented over 55,000 premature deaths, 85,000 heart attacks, and 900,000 asthma attacks.

Sierra Club also joined with our partners 75,000 strong in the streets of New York City in the fall of 2023 to protest the expansion of fossil fuels and call attention to harmful gas export projects along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. By January 2024, our clear call to stop the ongoing expansion pushed the Biden administration to pause all gas export terminal approvals! Now the Sierra Club is working to change the way these projects are considered, stopping dangerous new gas export projects for good by raising the standards to include the harm they pose to communities and the climate.