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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThree Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person, study finds
The analysis draws on public health studies that conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 produced, one person globally will diehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/29/carbon-emissions-americans-social-cost
The lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions. The new research builds upon what is known as the social cost of carbon, a monetary figure placed upon the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide emissions, by assigning an expected death toll from the emissions that cause the climate crisis. The analysis draws upon several public health studies to conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere beyond the 2020 rate of emissions, one person globally will die prematurely from the increased temperature. This additional CO2 is equivalent to the current lifetime emissions of 3.5 Americans.
Adding a further 4m metric tons above last years level, produced by the average US coal plant, will cost 904 lives worldwide by the end of the century, the research found. On a grander scale, eliminating planet-heating emissions by 2050 would save an expected 74 million lives around the world this century. The figures for expected deaths from the release of emissions arent definitive and may well be a vast underestimate as they only account for heat-related mortality rather than deaths from flooding, storms, crop failures and other impacts that flow from the climate crisis, according to Daniel Bressler of Columbia Universitys Earth Institute, who wrote the paper. Air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is also directly killing people, with a landmark Harvard University study published in February finding that more than 8 million globally are dying each year from the health effects of toxic air.
There are a significant number of lives that can be saved if you pursue climate policies that are more aggressive than the business as usual scenario, Bressler said. I was surprised at how large the number of deaths are. There is some uncertainty over this, the number could be lower but it could also be a lot higher. The research, published in Nature Communications, illustrates the vast disparities in the emissions generated by peoples consumption in different countries around the world. While it takes just 3.5 Americans to create enough emissions in a lifetime to kill one person, it would take 25 Brazilians or 146 Nigerians to do the same, the paper found. The social, or financial, cost of carbon has become a widely-used metric after its creation by economist William Nordhaus, who subsequently won a Nobel prize, in the 1990s. The measurement calculates the damage caused by a ton of emissions, factored with the ability to adapt to the changing climate.
Under Nordhaus DICE model the 2020 social cost of carbon is $37 a metric ton but Bresslers addition of the mortality cost brings this figure up to $258 a ton. This change to the model would imply that an economically optimal policy would be to radically reduce emissions to reach full decarbonization by 2050, a scenario that has also been backed by climate scientists as one that would avoid the worst ravages of global heating. Nordhaus came up with a fantastic model but he didnt take in the latest literature on climate changes damage upon mortality, theres been an explosion of research on that topic in recent years, said Bressler. Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at New York University who was not involved in the research, said that the social cost of carbon is a crucial policy tool but is also very abstract. That makes attempts to translate our climate impact into more relatable terms so important, he said, adding that the new research on the mortality cost shows the results are certainly dramatic.
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Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person, study finds (Original Post)
Celerity
Jul 2021
OP
littlemissmartypants
(22,656 posts)1. Kicked and recommended. ❤