Coal and Gas Operations Worldwide Threaten Well-being of Two Billion Residents, Analysis Reveals

A quarter of the global people dwells inside 5km of functioning fossil fuel projects, potentially threatening the physical condition of over two billion people as well as essential environmental systems, according to first-of-its-kind study.

Worldwide Spread of Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

In excess of 18.3k oil, natural gas, and coal facilities are presently distributed in 170 states globally, taking up a extensive area of the Earth's surface.

Nearness to drilling wells, processing plants, pipelines, and other coal and gas operations elevates the danger of tumors, breathing ailments, cardiac problems, premature birth, and fatality, while also causing severe dangers to water sources and air cleanliness, and harming soil.

Close Proximity Dangers and Future Growth

Almost half a billion individuals, including 124 million children, presently reside inside 1km of fossil fuel operations, while another 3,500 or so upcoming facilities are now under consideration or under development that could require 135 million further individuals to endure fumes, gas flares, and spills.

Most functioning projects have established toxic hotspots, converting nearby neighborhoods and vital ecosystems into so-called expendable regions – highly toxic areas where economically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations bear the unequal burden of contact to contaminants.

Physical and Natural Consequences

This analysis details the devastating physical impact from mining, refining, and movement, as well as showing how leaks, ignitions, and development harm unique ecological systems and compromise civil liberties – particularly of those residing in proximity to oil, gas, and coal infrastructure.

It comes as international representatives, not including the US – the largest past source of climate pollutants – gather in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual global climate conference amid increasing concern at the lack of progress in eliminating oil, gas, and coal, which are driving planetary collapse and civil liberties infringements.

"Coal and petroleum corporations and their state sponsors have claimed for many years that human development requires oil, gas, and coal. But it is clear that masked as financial development, they have rather promoted profit and earnings unchecked, violated liberties with almost total immunity, and destroyed the air, natural world, and seas."

Environmental Negotiations and International Urgency

The climate conference takes place as the the Asian nation, Mexico, and the Caribbean island are dealing with superstorms that were worsened by increased air and sea heat levels, with countries under mounting urgency to take strong measures to regulate oil and gas companies and halt mining, government funding, licenses, and demand in order to follow a significant decision by the international court of justice.

In recent days, disclosures revealed how more than 5,350 fossil fuel industry advocates have been granted admission to the United Nations global conferences in the past four years, obstructing environmental measures while their sponsors drill for record volumes of oil and gas.

Research Approach and Data

The quantitative analysis is founded on a groundbreaking location-based exercise by experts who cross-referenced data on the known sites of coal and gas operations locations with census information, and collections on vital environments, greenhouse gas outputs, and tribal areas.

A third of all active oil, coal, and gas sites intersect with one or more key habitats such as a swamp, forest, or aquatic network that is abundant in species diversity and vital for CO2 absorption or where environmental degradation or catastrophe could lead to environmental breakdown.

The true global scope is possibly larger due to omissions in the recording of fossil fuel sites and incomplete demographic data in nations.

Ecological Inequity and Tribal Populations

The results show entrenched ecological injustice and bias in contact to petroleum, natural gas, and coal mining operations.

Tribal populations, who account for one in twenty of the world's residents, are unequally vulnerable to life-shortening oil and gas operations, with a sixth facilities positioned on Indigenous lands.

"We endure long-term battle fatigue … We physically cannot endure [this]. We have never been the instigators but we have endured the brunt of all the conflict."

The spread of oil, gas, and coal has also been associated with territorial takeovers, heritage destruction, social fragmentation, and economic hardship, as well as force, digital harassment, and court cases, both penal and civil, against local representatives peacefully opposing the development of conduits, mining sites, and additional operations.

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