Fossil Fuels: The ‘Invisible Killer’ out to Wipe Humanity from Planet Earth

The major world ‘invisible killer’ has been revealed by researchers. Pollution resulting from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, diesel, kerosene and oil was responsible for the deaths of around 8.7 million globally in 2018. 

Countries that overly use fossil fuels as the source of energy for domestic purposes and to power vehicles recorded the highest fatalities. The study revealed that about 10 percent deaths in Europe and the US was caused as a result of air pollution.

According to the study, death rates in Africa and South America were relatively lower, while a third of the deaths in Eastern Asia were resultant effects of pollution. Those individuals who conducted the research were astounded by the death toll which was higher than what they had estimated.

The report that was published in the Journal Environmental Research (JER), indicate that the mortality rate of pollution surpassed the combined sum of those people who die globally as a result of malaria and smoking tobacco. Diseases associated with environmental pollution include respiratory ailments and heart disease.

JER report contradicts the one that was published by Lancet in 2019 which found that 4.2 million annual deaths resulted from air pollutants such as wild fire smoke, fossil fuel combustion and dust. The health impact assessment conducted by JER showed that the combustion of petrol, diesel and coal was the major source of airborne particulate matter (pm) which exacerbated the global mortality rate.