Fossil Fuel Extraction and Burning is costing our Health

Global fossil fuel air pollution is linked to one in five deaths. Coal fired power in Australia is estimated to cause $2.6 billion in health costs every year from released toxic particles. Air pollution from 5 NSW coal fired power stations was found to have caused 280 premature deaths every year. Vehicle emissions globally are estimated to have resulted 385,000 premature deaths in 2015.

The massive Health Impacts of Climate Change

Climate change from the burning of fossil fuels will cause massive physical and mental health impacts from heatwaves, increased air pollution from smoke, poorer food, the spread of diseases floods and storms. It will hit pregnant women, the unborn, young children and the elderly particularly hard. Globally, 157 million more people were exposed to heatwave events in 2017 compared with 2000. 

More Fossil Fuels means less Water

Gas extraction uses large and increasing amounts of water. Natural gas fracking, on average, uses more than 28 times the water it did 15 years ago, gulping up to 35 million litres of water per well and putting farming and drinking sources at risk.

Australia’s black coal industry uses enough water for over 5 million people. Fossils fuel extraction exacerbates water shortages due to drought, while droughts themselves become more common due to fossil-fuel caused climate change.