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Deaths caused by use of fossil fuels such as oil (areas of rectangles in chart) greatly exceed those resulting from production of renewable energy (rectangles barely visible in chart). [ 45 ] Some harmful impacts of petroleum can be limited to the geographic locations where it is produced, consumed, and/or disposed.
The health and environmental impact of transport is significant because transport burns most of the world's petroleum.This causes illness and deaths from air pollution, including nitrous oxides and particulates, and is a significant cause of climate change through emission of carbon dioxide.
By 2050, aviation's negative effects on climate could be decreased by a 2% increase in fuel efficiency and a decrease in NO x emissions, due to advanced aircraft technologies, operational procedures and renewable alternative fuels decreasing radiative forcing due to sulfate aerosol and black carbon. [5]
Since a large share of air pollution is caused by combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, the reduction of these fuels can reduce air pollution drastically. Most effective is the switch to clean power sources such as wind power, solar power, hydro power which do not cause air pollution. [217]
Coal is the largest contributor to the human-made increase of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. There are severe health effects caused by burning coal. [22] [23] [24] Worldwide 25 people die early for each terawatt hour of electricity generated by coal, around a thousand times more than nuclear or solar. [25]
Increases in methane levels due to modern human activities arise from a number of specific sources including industrial activity; from extraction of oil and natural gas from underground reserves; [59] transportation via pipeline of oil and natural gas; and thawing permafrost in Arctic regions, due to global warming which is caused by human use ...
Air pollution is caused predominantly by burning fossil fuels, cars, and much more. [4] Natural sources of air pollution include forest fires, volcanic eruptions, wind erosion, pollen dispersal, evaporation of organic compounds, and natural radioactivity. These natural sources of pollution often soon disperse and thin settling near their locale.
The main sources of greenhouse gases due to human activity (also called carbon sources) are: Burning fossil fuels: Burning oil, coal and gas is estimated to have emitted 37.4 billion tonnes of CO 2-eq in 2023. [34] The largest single source is coal-fired power stations, with 20% of greenhouse gases (GHG) as of 2021. [35]