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Producing and burning fossil fuels creates air pollution that harms our health and generates toxic emissions that drive climate change.
From the electricity that lights our homes to the cars we drive to work, modern life was built on fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. But burning them creates climate change and releases pollutants that lead to early death, heart attacks, respiratory disorders, stroke, asthma, and absenteeism at school and work. It has also been linked to autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.
Research from Harvard University, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester and University College London, found that more than 8 million people died in 2018 from fossil fuel pollution, significantly higher than previous research suggested—meaning that air pollution from burning fossil fuels like coal and diesel was responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths worldwide.
Each year, our team contributes to the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change to track the impacts of climate change on human health across 44 indicators around the world. Our research analyzes the health impacts of burning fossil fuels and shows how much we have to gain by ending our reliance on them. Recent research from our Center:
- Identified at least 21 different hazardous air pollutants, as defined by the U.S. EPA, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and hexane, in consumer-grade natural gas supplied to Massachusetts.
- Created a new inventory of air pollution impacts from stationary sources over the past decade that shows the negative impacts of burning natural gas and biomass have surpassed coal generation in many states, which is a trend that may continue.
- Conducted the first study to determine that Pennsylvania’s statewide setback regulations for fracking do not prevent setback incidents, and identified the potential risks and exposures for people living near fracking or underground natural gas wells.
- Showed that more people live closer to underground gas storage wells than previously thought. An estimated 20,000 homes and 53,000 people in predominantly suburban areas of PA, OH, WV, MI, NY, and CA live within a city block of active underground natural gas storage wells.
- Developed the science-based case for why it is “appropriate and necessary” for EPA to regulate mercury emissions from the power sector; and why the health benefits of regulation and remaining risks from mercury pollution in the U.S. should be assessed.
The 2022 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Policy Brief for the U.S.
Climate change puts everyone at risk, but policy decisions and industry actions make some communities more vulnerable to the harms of climate change.
Home is Where the Pipeline Ends
Our study is the first to test for health-damaging air pollutants in unburned natural gas where it is used: in our homes.
2021 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: U.S. Policy Report
Our response to climate change must prioritize and optimize health and equity. We can improve health through climate actions that reduce our use of fossil fuels.
Methane Reductions in the Oil and Gas Sector can Protect Public Health
A literature review examines the last ten years of research on methane and health-damaging air pollutant emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Negative impacts of burning natural gas and biomass have surpassed coal generation in many states
A new inventory of air pollution impacts from stationary sources over the past decade shows this trend may continue.
Pennsylvania setback regulations for fracking do not prevent setback incidents
The first study to look at the effectiveness of PA's statewide setback regulations and identify the potential risks and exposures for people living near fracking or UNG wells.
Pollution from fossil fuel combustion deadlier than previously thought
Fine particulate pollution from fossil fuel combustion was responsible for one in five early deaths worldwide in 2018, with vulnerable groups at greatest risk.
Fossil fuel air pollution responsible for 1 in 5 deaths worldwide
New research finds that deaths from fossil fuel emissions are higher than previously thought—more than 8 million people per year, worldwide.
'We Don't Have To Live This Way': Doctors Call For Climate Action
A sprawling analysis published by The Lancet focuses on public health data from 2019, and finds that heat waves, air pollution and extreme weather increasingly damage human health.
Shedding light on climate change’s threats to health
Gina McCarthy wants to get the word out that climate change is more than just “a distant issue”—that it’s a very real threat to public health right now. In a wide-ranging March 21, 2019 interview with Medscape, McCarthy, director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE) at Harvard T.H. Chan School…
The Center of Happiness
Most public health research focuses on the underlying causes of death and disease. But at the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard Chan School, researchers focus on the opposite: the positive factors that maintain or even improve people’s health and well-being. A $21 million gift from the Lee Kum Kee…
Carbon Standards Examined
A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters predicts that, compared to no carbon regulations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule would increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 18 states and Washington, D.C. in 2030 due to an “emissions rebound,” raising questions about the rule’s standing under the Clean Air Act. Sulfur…
Reliance on coal linked with lung cancer incidence
The more a country relies on coal-fired power plants to generate energy, the greater the lung cancer risk is among its citizens, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study was published on January 28, 2019 in the journal Environmental Health. Most estimates of health risks from coal-fired…
A Gas Company Settles for $119.5 Million for the biggest methane leak in US History
After one of its natural gas storage wells blew out and caused the biggest methane leak in United States history, the Southern California Gas Company has agreed to pay $119.5 million to settle city, county, and state claims against it.
