Jan 19, 2024 05:15 PM
(This post was last modified: Jan 19, 2024 06:41 PM by C C.)
Five million preventable deaths per year
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/fiv...deaths-per
INTRO: Climate change is not the only consequence of the burning of fossil fuels. A 2020 study published in Cardiovascular Research estimated that in 2015, the deaths of almost 9 million people worldwide were attributable to air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels — mainly in Asia. Of those deaths, more than 5 million are avoidable. You can see their results in the table below.
The numbers are staggering — They equate to more than 15,000 avoidable deaths per day, every day, under the study’s mean estimates. Excess deaths from fossil fuel air pollution comprises about 40% of all air pollution deaths. Overall, the authors claim that the loss of life expectancy globally from air pollution exceeds that of smoking by one third.
The study found that “the mortality from air pollution is dominated by East Asia (35%) and South Asia (32%), followed by Africa (11%) and Europe (9%).” China and India lead the way with an estimated 1.6 million and 700,000 deaths, respectively. The United States ranked third, with almost 200,000 deaths. Europe, as a whole, had an estimated 430,000 deaths.
Perhaps if we spoke as much about “death intensity” of coal energy as we do of its “carbon intensity” we might focus minds more quickly on the importance of relegating coal technology to the past...
[...] A 2021 study in Nature Climate Change concluded that the retirement of the most polluting coal plants could save millions of lives, as you can see in the figure below from that paper...
[...] Air pollution reduction is often referred to as a “co-benefit” of climate policy. This is not quite right. When it comes to coal-generated electricity in particular, it is carbon dioxide reduction that is the co-benefit that accompanies the large human health gains that follow from shutting down dirty power plants.
We do not need any other reason beyond the health effects of air pollution to more rapidly transition to cleaner sources of energy, including nuclear power, with far less human impact... (MORE - details)
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/fiv...deaths-per
INTRO: Climate change is not the only consequence of the burning of fossil fuels. A 2020 study published in Cardiovascular Research estimated that in 2015, the deaths of almost 9 million people worldwide were attributable to air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels — mainly in Asia. Of those deaths, more than 5 million are avoidable. You can see their results in the table below.
The numbers are staggering — They equate to more than 15,000 avoidable deaths per day, every day, under the study’s mean estimates. Excess deaths from fossil fuel air pollution comprises about 40% of all air pollution deaths. Overall, the authors claim that the loss of life expectancy globally from air pollution exceeds that of smoking by one third.
The study found that “the mortality from air pollution is dominated by East Asia (35%) and South Asia (32%), followed by Africa (11%) and Europe (9%).” China and India lead the way with an estimated 1.6 million and 700,000 deaths, respectively. The United States ranked third, with almost 200,000 deaths. Europe, as a whole, had an estimated 430,000 deaths.
Perhaps if we spoke as much about “death intensity” of coal energy as we do of its “carbon intensity” we might focus minds more quickly on the importance of relegating coal technology to the past...
[...] A 2021 study in Nature Climate Change concluded that the retirement of the most polluting coal plants could save millions of lives, as you can see in the figure below from that paper...
[...] Air pollution reduction is often referred to as a “co-benefit” of climate policy. This is not quite right. When it comes to coal-generated electricity in particular, it is carbon dioxide reduction that is the co-benefit that accompanies the large human health gains that follow from shutting down dirty power plants.
We do not need any other reason beyond the health effects of air pollution to more rapidly transition to cleaner sources of energy, including nuclear power, with far less human impact... (MORE - details)