If the consequences of burning fossil fuels—like melting glaciers, rising seas, and increasing global temperature averages—feel too far-flung or abstract, consider the fundamental act of taking a breath of air. A new study has found that air pollution from fossil fuels is responsible for nearly one in every five deaths worldwide.
Scientists have known for years about the deadly impacts of fossil fuel combustion, but a new peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Research puts the global death toll at more than twice that of previous estimates. According to the research, exposure to fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, from burning fossil fuels was responsible for about 8.7 million deaths globally in 2018. That’s roughly the same number of people living in New York City or London. Or, to put this health crisis into further perspective, fossil fuel pollution is not only fueling the climate crisis but it also kills more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.
“We don’t appreciate that air pollution is an invisible killer,” Neelu Tummala, an ear, nose, and throat physician at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, recently told The Guardian. “The air we breathe impacts everyone’s health but particularly children, older individuals, those on low incomes, and people of color. Usually people in urban areas have the worst impacts.”
PM 2.5 is any airborne particle that is up to 2.5 microns in diameter—or about one-thirtieth the width of a single human hair. Particles this tiny are problematic because they linger in the air, are readily inhaled, and can penetrate deep into the lungs, where they can enter the bloodstream and inflict damage on multiple organs.
