“Oil consumption is hurtling back…and demand for coal, the dirtiest of…fuels, is rising.”

Pollution

Extraction

“Nalleli Cobo was 9 years old when her nose started bleeding…then…headaches and heart palpitations.”

Why? An oil “drilling site just 300 feet from where she lived”?

In her teens she developed cancer, but as of 2021, she is cancer free.

“Certain chemical byproducts of oil extraction [include] benzene and hydrogen sulfide.”

Excess gas is openly burned (“flaring”) at drill sites and refineries.

Proposed EPA regulations “would still permit flaring of unwanted…gas from oil wells.”

Transportation

15% of fossil-fuel GHG pollution occurs when the material is taken out of the ground.

Transporting, processing, and refining create additional pollution.

Processing

These are California’s “Most frequent…routine toxic…emissions from…refineries:"

• ammonia
• formaldehyde
• methanol
• sulfuric acid (see photo)
• hydrogen sulfide
• toluene
• xylene
• benzene
• hexane
• hydrogen chloride

Petrochemical industry processes produce plastics which “are responsible for poisoning our bodies, reducing our fertility rates, and destroying wildlife.”

Fertilizer is also produced by processing fossil-fuels. “Petroleum-based fertilizers [can]… destroy beneficial soil micro-organisms."

Utilization

When the product is used in a car, a toxic brew of chemicals exit tail pipes (benzene, sulphur dioxide, formaldehyde).

These and other auto pollutants - carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, PM (soot), carbon dioxide - can cause pulmonary and cardiovascular symptoms.

A similar chemical cacophony comes out of jet engines.

“Sprawling wildfires … are producing record amounts of greenhouse gases.”

Abandonment

When gas & oil wells or coal mines become depleted they are often neglected - leading to additional pollution.

“The EPA estimates… the nation’s [ abandoned ] … wells leaked about 263,000 tons of methane in 2019.”

“Methane is a super-pollutant.”

4 sources of methane are:

• garbage dumps (see shopping)
• cattle/cows (see food)
• leaks (see house)
• flaring (see top of page)

So now you know a little about pollution made during:

• extraction
• transportation
• processing
• burning / utilization
• & abandonment

But do you know future pollution?

“Trading coal plants for gas plants…left…cumulative future pollution…virtually unchanged.”

Also called “stranded assets”: assets that have been claimed, and paid for, but not (yet) taken.

This invested money will be lost - if the fossil-fuel is left untouched. See Investments and Profits.

Pollution, pollution, pollution.

For more on your personal contribution, visit the pollution calculators.