Fossil Fuels and Their Effects on The Economy and Health (Free Essay Sample)

Last year, the world spent 423 billion dollars on keeping the fossil fuel industry running.  At the same time, the world spent 8.1 trillion dollars on air pollution, and lost 2.9 trillion dollars in global GDP due to air pollution, most of which came from fossil fuels.  Both of these numbers combined make up about 6.5% of the global GDP every year.  Those numbers may not mean much to an everyday person reading this while drinking coffee before heading to work, but these numbers might: 230,000 people die every year because of fossil fuel and air pollution related deaths.  40,000 children die before their 5th birthday because they are exposed to harmful particles that are created by fossil fuels.  Furthermore, lower socioeconomic and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by fossil fuels and their harmful effects.  So why does the world spend so much money on a substance that ends up hurting more than helping?  The bottom line is that the world is hooked on fossil fuels, and it’s going to bring the economy and all the people affected to their knees.  

There is still time to save the lives that have yet to be affected.  Plans and action need to be taken.  Phasing out key parts of the fossil fuel businesses may help, but it's basically equivalent to taking one seed out of the world’s largest pumpkin on Halloween.  There is still more that we can do, and all that is needed is a comprehensive plan that allows for an easy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy that makes sure that both the economy doesn’t collapse, and people don’t continue to suffer.  The first step is to put a price on fossil fuel fuels that will make them unappealing, but still affordable.  By doing this, more people would be attracted to clean energy vehicles, and therefore consumption of fossil fuels would decrease.  The second step would be to make sure that there is more investment in the use of renewable energy.  This increase in investment would allow for organizations to spread their products, and the use of clean energy would increase.  The final step is to steadily phase out the use of fossil fuels from normal life.  With this phase out, the fossil fuel industry would become less and less of a giant, and the world would start to recover from the effects of fossil fuels.  

Everyone and their mother knows that fossil fuels hurt the environment, but almost no one can relate to ice caps melting thousands of miles away.  But these new facts show that fossil fuels are much closer to home than we think, and we need to stop them before it's too late.