Energy resources bring with them great social and economic promise, providing financial growth for communities and energy services for local economies. However, the infrastructure which delivers energy services can break down in an energy accident, sometimes causing considerable damage. Energy fatalities can occur, and with many systems deaths will happen often, even when the systems are working as intended.
Historically, coal mining has been the most dangerous energy activity and the list of historical coal mining disasters is a long one. Underground mining hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and gas explosions. Open cut mining hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents over the past century,[1] with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone.[2]
According to Benjamin K. Sovacool, 279 major energy accidents occurred from 1907 to 2007 and they caused 182,156 deaths with $41 billion in property damages, with these figures not including deaths from smaller accidents.[3]
However, by far the greatest energy fatalities as a result of energy generation by humanity are due to air pollution, primarily generated from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass.[4] Particulate matter (counting outdoor air pollution effects only) is estimated to cause 2.1[5][6] to 4.21 million deaths annually.[7][8]
- ^ "Former Miner Explains Culture Of Mining." NPR: National Public Radio. April 7, 2010.
- ^ "Coal Mining Steeped in History". ABC News. January 5, 2006.
- ^ Benjamin K. Sovacool. A preliminary assessment of major energy accidents, 1907–2007, Energy Policy 36 (2008), pp. 1802–1820.
- ^ Smith, Kirk R.; Frumkin, Howard; Balakrishnan, Kalpana; Butler, Colin D.; Chafe, Zoë A.; Fairlie, Ian; Kinney, Patrick; Kjellstrom, Tord; Mauzerall, Denise L.; McKone, Thomas E.; McMichael, Anthony J.; Schneider, Mycle (18 March 2013). "Energy and Human Health". Annual Review of Public Health. 34 (1): 159–188. doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031912-114404. hdl:1885/29543. PMID 23330697. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
- ^ "Fine Particulate Matter Map Shows Premature Mortality Due to Air Pollution. 2013".
- ^ Silva, Raquel A; West, J Jason; Zhang, Yuqiang; Anenberg, Susan C; Lamarque, Jean-François; Shindell, Drew T; Collins, William J; Dalsoren, Stig; Faluvegi, Greg; Folberth, Gerd; Horowitz, Larry W; Nagashima, Tatsuya; Naik, Vaishali; Rumbold, Steven; Skeie, Ragnhild; Sudo, Kengo; Takemura, Toshihiko; Bergmann, Daniel; Cameron-Smith, Philip; Cionni, Irene; Doherty, Ruth M; Eyring, Veronika; Josse, Beatrice; MacKenzie, I A; Plummer, David; Righi, Mattia; Stevenson, David S; Strode, Sarah; Szopa, Sophie; Zeng, Guang (2013). "Global premature mortality due to anthropogenic outdoor air pollution and the contribution of past climate change". Environmental Research Letters. 8 (3): 034005. Bibcode:2013ERL.....8c4005S. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034005. hdl:11250/2465267.
- ^ World Health Organization, ed. (25 March 2014). "7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution". Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
- ^ Lelieveld, J.; Klingmüller, K.; Pozzer, A.; Burnett, R. T.; Haines, A.; Ramanathan, V. (25 March 2019). "Effects of fossil fuel and total anthropogenic emission removal on public health and climate". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 116 (15): 7192–7197. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.7192L. doi:10.1073/pnas.1819989116. PMC 6462052. PMID 30910976.