A new study suggests that reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may help save approximately 3 million lives from being taken by premature deaths yearly by 2100.
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide lock in heat, and in effect, results to global warming. The rise in the levels of carbon dioxide due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution has now caused global warming. Burning fossil fuel produces not only carbon dioxide but also air pollutants that are dangerous to human health.
Jason West, an atmospheric scientist at the University of North Carolina said previous studies have explored how reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would improve air quality. However, most of those previous studies have only focused on deaths related to air pollution and not on how air pollutants can flow across national borders, do long-term transformations in human populations or determine the harsh effects of climate change on air quality.
The researchers created a global model to imitate perceived future circumstances of the interaction between mortality and air pollutants like ozone and particulate matter – tiny particles suspended in the air.
Their initial findings revealed that by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, it could prevent 300,000 to 700,000 premature deaths yearly by 2030 and by 2050, such reductions would avert 800,000 to 1.8 million.
"We found reducing greenhouse gases could lead to a pretty striking reduction in air pollutants, and thus a pretty significant impact on lives saved,” West told LiveScience.
The researchers estimated that $50 to $380 would be the equivalent cost of reducing a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, based on standard cost-benefit analysis that allots a monetary value to saving lives.
West added, "This is much more than the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so this can justify reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the point of view of human health.”
The study was published in the Sept. 22 issue of the online journal Nature Climate Change.
