Air Pollution

Ocean Acidification

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.

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.

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. 

Invest in Sustainable 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.

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).