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One-fourth of the world's population resides less than three miles of operational coal, oil, and gas sites, potentially endangering the health of exceeding two billion individuals as well as vital environmental systems, per groundbreaking research.

International Spread of Coal and Gas Operations

More than 18,300 oil, gas, and coal sites are currently spread across 170 countries worldwide, occupying a large territory of the planet's terrain.

Closeness to extraction sites, refineries, transport lines, and other oil and gas operations increases the risk of malignancies, lung diseases, heart disease, preterm labor, and death, while also posing severe dangers to water sources and air quality, and degrading terrain.

Nearby Residence Dangers and Planned Development

Approximately 463 million residents, counting one hundred twenty-four million children, now live less than 0.6 miles of coal and gas locations, while another 3.5k or so new sites are now proposed or under development that could require 135 million further residents to experience emissions, gas flares, and spills.

Nearly all operational projects have established pollution hotspots, turning surrounding communities and vital environments into referred to as disposable areas – highly contaminated zones where economically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations bear the unfair load of proximity to pollution.

Medical and Natural Effects

The study details the devastating health impact from drilling, processing, and shipping, as well as showing how leaks, flares, and construction harm unique ecological systems and undermine civil liberties – particularly of those living in proximity to oil, natural gas, and coal infrastructure.

It comes as world leaders, without the US – the greatest past source of carbon emissions – meet in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th annual environmental talks in the context of rising frustration at the slow advancement in eliminating oil, gas, and coal, which are causing global ecological crisis and human rights violations.

"Oil and gas companies and its government backers have maintained for many years that economic growth depends on fossil fuels. But research shows that masked as financial development, they have instead promoted self-interest and revenues without red lines, breached rights with near-complete exemption, and harmed the climate, ecosystems, and marine environments."

Climate Discussions and Worldwide Urgency

The environmental summit takes place as the Philippines, the North American country, and Jamaica are dealing with superstorms that were intensified by increased atmospheric and sea heat levels, with nations under mounting demand to take decisive steps to oversee fossil fuel companies and end drilling, government funding, authorizations, and consumption in order to follow a significant decision by the international court of justice.

Recently, disclosures indicated how more than 5,350 coal and petroleum lobbyists have been allowed admission to the international environmental negotiations in the last several years, obstructing environmental measures while their paymasters pump record amounts of oil and gas.

Analysis Process and Results

This data-driven research is based on a groundbreaking location-based effort by scientists who cross-referenced information on the known positions of oil and gas operations locations with population information, and datasets on essential environments, climate outputs, and tribal land.

A third of all operational oil, coal, and natural gas sites overlap with several key environments such as a wetland, woodland, or aquatic network that is rich in biodiversity and vital for emission storage or where ecological degradation or catastrophe could lead to environmental breakdown.

The actual worldwide scale is possibly greater due to gaps in the reporting of coal and gas projects and restricted census data in states.

Ecological Inequality and Native Populations

The results demonstrate long-standing environmental injustice and racism in exposure to oil, natural gas, and coal operations.

Indigenous peoples, who represent five percent of the world's population, are unequally subjected to dangerous coal and gas operations, with 16% facilities located on Indigenous territories.

"We endure intergenerational resistance weariness … We physically cannot endure [this]. We are not the initiators but we have endured the force of all the aggression."

The expansion of oil, gas, and coal has also been connected with land grabs, traditional loss, social fragmentation, and income reduction, as well as force, internet intimidation, and court cases, both criminal and civil, against population advocates non-violently resisting the construction of pipelines, drilling projects, and further operations.

"We are not pursue wealth; we just desire {what