The United States is no stranger to the steady influx and usage of fossil fuels as a major source of energy. Most of us vaguely understand that this technology, which includes oil, coal and natural gas, is detrimental to our environment and subsequently destructive to the general wellbeing of our communities. However, forcing the break from a source which currently makes up 80 percent of the world’s energy usage is no simple feat. Fossil fuels not only provide a conveniently available and extremely combustible form of energy, but they are relatively cheap compared to the alternatives and controlled by some of the wealthiest companies in the world.
These companies and the industry itself benefit from global subsidies at a vastly higher rate than other industries and are adverse to public interest in most cases. For example, new research released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that fossil fuel companies benefit from $10 million a minute in global subsidies, which is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments combined.
As a country, and even more specifically as the generation who will be cleaning up the degradation following the age of fossil fuel usage, we must demand an end to the subsidies that continually make these corporations richer while endangering the lives of our children and our planet. 2011 research showed that emissions from coal plants in China were responsible not only for the abhorrent amount of pollution in the country, but also for nearly quarter of a million premature deaths. One 11-year-old girl was even diagnosed with lung cancer due to the coal-entrenched environment she was living in. The U.S. is on its way to becoming another horror story in terms of fossil-fuel pollution-related deaths and complications.
Putting a stop to subsidies would ensure that we slowly but surely become less dependent on fossil fuels and start to phase them out altogether. Subsidizing the fossil fuel industry is only making it stronger and taking more resources away from countries that could otherwise ensure stronger economies, better health care and improved education systems.
The vast majority of Americans know there are just as many cons as pros of fossil fuel usage. Eventually, these nonrenewable resources will run out. When they do, we must be equipped with a structurally sound framework consisting of low-carbon societies across the globe in order to survive.
Besides the environmental damage avoided with the advent of hydro- and solar-power, moving from a fossil fuel-based society to a renewable energy-based society will ensure that the massive corporations are not able to exploit and manipulate individuals in need in order to further their own agenda. Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately-owned coal company, is an example of how excess wealth can strip compassion and integrity from corporations.
The company recently promoted its product as a solution to Africa’s Ebola crisis, trying to make a profit of the 11,000 deaths (and counting) that have devastated numerous countries across the continent. Trying to liken increased electricity to an actual solution (such as a vaccine) was a crude way for Peabody to sell themselves during such a sensitive time, and many world health organizations have condemned the move. The intense greed shown in this situation further corroborates the need to break away from this industry in which corporate greed flourishes with no foreseeable end. Funds should be generously allocated to industries which will ensure a healthy future, not prevent one.