Environmental impact of the energy industry
[9] A 2013 study showed that two thirds of the industrial greenhouse gas emissions are due to the fossil-fuel (and cement) production of just ninety companies around the world (between 1751 and 2010, with half emitted since 1986).
[10][11] Although there is a highly publicized denial of climate change, the vast majority of scientists working in climatology accept that it is due to human activity.
[15] The study also found that the environmental and health costs of nuclear power, per unit of energy delivered, was €0.0019/kWh, which was found to be lower than that of many renewable sources including that caused by biomass and photovoltaic solar panels, and was thirty times lower than coal at €0.06/kWh, or 6 cents/kWh, with the energy sources of the lowest external environmental and health costs associated with it being wind power at €0.0009/kWh.
A climate change expert, Lee White states that "To get an idea of the value of the sink, the removal of nearly 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by intact tropical forests is at issue.
[19] In 2013 the burning of fossil fuels produced around 32 billion tonnes (32 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide and additional air pollution.
[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.
Crude oil and natural gas are primary energy and raw material sources that enable numerous aspects of modern daily life and the world economy.
Their supply has grown quickly over the last 150 years to meet the demands of the rapidly increasing human population, creativity, knowledge, and consumerism.
[28] Substantial quantities of toxic and non-toxic waste are generated during the extraction, refinement, and transportation stages of oil and gas.
[36] Among all human activities, fossil fuel combustion is the largest contributor to the ongoing buildup of carbon in the Earth's biosphere.
[42][44][45] Along with fuels like gasoline and liquified natural gas, petroleum enables many consumer chemicals and products, such as fertilizers and plastics.
However, there is a "catastrophic risk" potential if containment fails,[54] which in nuclear reactors can be brought about by over-heated fuels melting and releasing large quantities of fission products into the environment.
The most long-lived radioactive wastes, including spent nuclear fuel, must be contained and isolated from humans and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years.
The 1979 Three Mile Island accident and 1986 Chernobyl disaster, along with high construction costs, ended the rapid growth of global nuclear power capacity.
[54] A further disastrous release of radioactive materials followed the 2011 Japanese tsunami which damaged the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in hydrogen gas explosions and partial meltdowns classified as a Level 7 event.
