Petroleum Oil
Table of Contents
Introduction
The oil industry is one of the greatest contributors to many threats we currently face including global warming, climate change, sea level rise, acid rain/ocean acidification, and species extinction.
Costs of Oil
Air Pollution
Ocean Acidification
Climate Change / Global Warming
Sea Level Rise
Health Consequences
The oil industry poses many health risks to humans and wildlife. Spills can cause cancer and other health issues immediately and extending for decades after, especially if not cleaned up quickly and properly. Climate change increases our stress levels which has many consequences, including head disease and strokes. Even byproducts such as plastics harm all levels of life on earth by changing soil quality and infiltrating us via the food web and even our lungs. The petrochemicals used in personal care products also pose a variety of dangers to our health.
Oil Spills
"Lake Maracaibo, which once was at the heart of Venezuela’s oil boom, has turned into a polluted wasteland, according to environmentalists.
The pollution of the lake, located about 600 kilometers (372 miles) west of the capital, Caracas, is the result of decades of excessive oil exploitation, poor maintenance of the obsolete infrastructure and a lack of waste treatment plants in the area. Tens of thousands of kilometers of pipes lie at its bottom, where crude oil leaks and system failures are frequent." - APNews: Lake Maracaibo Venezuela Pollution Fishermen
Plastic Pollution
Since most plastic is a byproduct of the oil industry, virtually all plastic pollution is ultimately the fault of the oil industry. Newer types of bioplastic can break down in the environment, but petroleum-based plastics can survive in our air, water, and soil for hundreds of years. Microplastics have entered our food chain from the smaller invertebrates where they bioaccumulate in larger fish and other animal species. Farmers are increasingly feeding more and more plastic-contaminated or even fully plastic feed alternatives to livestock including cattle as feed costs rise and climate change upends food availability. Now scientists and doctors are finding microplastics in our blood, breast milk, and organs including our lungs.
Solutions
The following are organized (to the best of our ability) from greatest impact to lesser. The larger section titles indicate a general topic or subject, and the smaller titles indicate sub-topics that can offer additional impact, though perhaps not as much as the next general topic.
End Oil Subsidies
Our governments currently give many times more money to fossil fuel companies than they spend on transitioning to green energy or energy efficiency. Ending these corporate handouts could help reset energy prices to reflect their true costs, encouraging a faster shift to green energy as well as discouraging energy waste.
Alternative Energy
Many of us already know solar and wind energy production is sky rocketing, but there are other types of energy production still being discovered and scaled up such as hygro-, snow, and kinetic energy.
Use Less Energy
The energy supply and market have often been described as "like a bathtub" which is filled with energy from different industries, and used (or drained) by many customers - industries and households. Historically oil, gas, and coal have made up the largest percent of this imaginary bathtub, however this percentage shrinks as more solar, wind, hydro, and other energy generation options enter the market and expand.
The problem now is that as people switch to green energy, they often want to support those industries by buying/using more energy, or feel that small actions like turning off lights is less important because they are using green energy. The problem with this is that using more energy means more energy production is needed, and this often translates to more fossil fuels to fill the gap when sustainable options aren't able to expand quickly enough.
By using less energy, we can help starve out the fossil fuel industries faster, especially after switching to green energy providers or setting up our own energy production.
Improve On & Expand Battery Usage
This can boost the efficiency of renewables - for example storing extra solar power for cloudier days or night time hours.
A growing number of communities are now using excess renewable energy to heat water, which is then stored and redistributed to the community or for industrial uses. This makes the most of renewables and has allowed European communities to disinvest from Russian gas and oil.
Taxing Polluters
By taxing polluters fairly, we can reduce their commercial viability, while also providing funding for clean ups, funding sustainable projects and activities, as well as paying back communities around the world for the land, health, and other assets lost to Big Oil's corporate greed.
Clean Up Spills
Historically energy companies have been very lazy and dishonest about their infrastructure's stability and clean up efforts after their many spills, leaks, and explosions. Polluters need to be held financially responsible, but there also needs to be legal oversight to prevent the oil industry from cutting corners, for example using dispersants to make oil "disappear" as it sinks instead of actually being removed from aquatic environments.
Clean Up Info
Oil Spills
Human hair can be used to clean absorb oil spills naturally, however it becomes heavy and sinks, making it difficult and expensive to work with. Other devices and solutions have also been investigated, created, and improved upon. These include synthetic floating devices that absorb oil, bubble curtains, and microorganisms that feed on oil.
Plastic Pollution
As a byproduct of the oil industry, plastics break down into dangerous chemicals and microplastics. When plastics break down in the sun, they actually increase CO2 levels.
Organizations
The following organizations may oppose the oil industry directly or work on solutions that will help reduce the need for fossil fuels (active transit and waste-reduction groups help reduce our reliance on oil), or reduce the impact of the oil industry (for example oyster reefs help sequester carbon along with many other benefits).
International
Climate Defenders "is a multigenerational and multiracial action home rising up against the oil industry destroying our planet and our communities.
For generations, oil CEOs and the bank executives that finance them have prioritized profits over the well-being of our planet and its people. They pollute our air, poison our water, and dump toxins into our neighborhoods.
As Climate Defenders, we are fighting to end the fossil fuel industry and build a new future with good jobs, clean water, safe air, and a better future for our families. Join us!"
North America
USA
Anthropocene Alliance (A2) "has almost 300 member-communities in 41 U.S. states and territories. They are impacted by flooding, toxic waste, wildfires, and drought and heat — all compounded by reckless development and climate change. The consequence is broken lives and a ravaged environment.
The goal of A2 is to help communities fight back. We do that by providing them organizing support, scientific and technical guidance, and better access to foundation and government funding. Most of all, our work consists of listening to our frontline leaders. Their experience, research, and solidarity guide everything we do, and offer a path toward environmental and social justice.
Supported by outstanding partner organizations with expertise in engineering, hydrology, public health, planning, and the law, A2 leaders have successfully halted developments in climate-vulnerable areas; implemented nature-based hazard mitigation strategies; organized home buyouts; and pushed for clean-ups at superfund sites, toxic landfills, and petrochemical plants.
We support everyone we can, but our special priority is people who have suffered the worst environmental impacts for the longest time; that usually means low-income, Black, Latinx, Native American and other underserved communities.
To learn about our policies, read our A 10-Point Platform on Climate Change."
Rewiring America ⚡ "is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. We develop accessible, actionable data and tools, and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. We believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one."
Stop the Money Pipeline "We are a coalition of 230+ organizations working to hold the financial sector accountable for its role in fueling climate chaos and environmental racism.
Join us to help end financing for fossil fuels."The Youth Climate Finance Alliance "is a youth-led and youth-centered network of individual organizers and organizations. Our team’s purpose is to serve as a resource, network, and support system for grassroots youth climate organizations across the so-called US. We facilitate growth through skill development and transformative relationship building which enables local youth leaders to build and wield power against corporate climate villains and end extractive institutions and industries, with a particular emphasis on the financial pipeline to the fossil fuel industry.
We believe in growing the power of grassroots youth organizers and organizations. The young people we work with have immense revolutionary potential and power. With support, guidance, and community, they will radically change the world for the better. We see climate finance as a strategic, targeted pathway to channel the energy of youth climate organizers and target financial institutions that are directly responsible for funding fossil fuel infrastructure and projects, harming communities, our planet, and our future."
Arizona
Navajo Power "is the leading developer that possesses the necessary combination of technical expertise, cultural and linguistic aptitude, and access to capital to successfully develop utility-scale clean energy projects on the Navajo Nation and across Indian Country"
South America
Amazon Watch "is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems."
Maps
International
The Global Integrated Power Tracker (GIPT) (Interactive) is a multi-sector dataset of power stations and facilities worldwide. The tracker provides unit-level information on thermal power (coal, oil, gas, nuclear, geothermal, bioenergy) and renewables (solar, wind, hydro). The tracker includes data on unit capacity, status, ownership, fuel type, start year, retirement date, geolocation, and more. Each power facility is linked to a profile page, hosted on GEM.wiki, that provides further information.
Global Energy Monitor’s eight power sector trackers provide the source of underlying data: the Global Coal Plant Tracker, Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker, Global Solar Power Tracker, Global Wind Power Tracker, Global Hydropower Tracker, Global Geothermal Power Tracker, Global Bioenergy Power Tracker, Global Nuclear Power Tracker."The Global Methane Emitters Tracker (GMET) "provides estimates of fossil fuel emissions at oil and gas and coal extraction sites, natural gas transmission pipelines, proposed projects and reserves, and attribution of remotely-sensed methane plumes.
As of November 2023, the first version of the tracker includes methane emissions estimates for coal extraction and gas pipelines, attributions of remotely-sensed methane plume observations for oil and gas infrastructures in North America, and coal mine observations worldwide. The tracker will expand its remotely-sensed plume attribution coverage in future iterations. GMET also associates assets within GEM’s Oil & Gas Extraction Tracker to the methane emissions estimates developed by Climate TRACE."The Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker (GOGET) (Interactive) "is a global dataset of oil and gas resources and their development. GOGET includes information on discovered, in-development, and operating oil and gas units worldwide, including both conventional and unconventional assets. The dataset tracks the status, ownership, production, and reserves of each unit, as data is available. Units that have production of 1 million boe/yr or more and/or reserves of 25 million boe or more are included. The data is provided in both map and table format. Each unit included in the tracker is linked to a wiki page on GEM.wiki, which provides additional details, including references for the data."
The Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker (GOGPT) (Interactive) is a worldwide dataset of oil and gas-fired power plants. It includes units with capacities of 50 megawatts (MW) or more (20 MW or more in the European Union and the United Kingdom). For internal combustion units, or those units that have multiple identically sized engines, the 50 MW capacity unit threshold applies to the total capacity of the set of engines. The GOGPT catalogs every oil and gas power plant at this capacity threshold of any status, including operating, announced, pre-construction, construction, shelved, cancelled, mothballed, or retired. Units often consist of a boiler and gas or steam turbines, and several units may make up one power station. The map and underlying data is updated bi-annually, in February and August. Each plant included in the tracker is linked to a wiki page on GEM.wiki, which provides additional details."
The Global Oil Infrastructure Tracker (GOIT) (Interactive) is an information resource on crude oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) transmission pipeline projects and their development. Currently, GOIT attempts to include all global crude oil and NGL transmission pipelines of any status, though availability on this infrastructure varies across countries and regions, and some are researched more completely than others. An interactive map shows pipeline routes, and tables allow users to access additional data on each project. Both the map and table can be filtered, and more information is provided on project-specific wiki pages housed on GEM.wiki. The sources used during research and data collection are cited in each project’s wiki page. The internal GOIT database and wiki pages are updated continuously throughout the year, and an annual release is published and distributed with data summary tables."