According to a disturbing new study based on US public health data, for every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 emitted, one person dies worldwide. That's roughly equivalent to the average carbon footprint of just slightly more than three Americans in their lifetime!
How many lives will be lost if we continue to increase our CO2 emissions? Published in Nature Communications, a new estimation-based study looks at calculating a precise measure -- "the social cost of carbon" (SCC), elaborated by economist William Nordhaus in the 1990s and referring to the monetary value of the damage caused by each additional ton of carbon emissions. In the United States, President Joe Biden reinstated this indicator shortly after taking office, after his predecessor Donald Trump had buried it.
Led by researcher Daniel Bressler of Columbia University's Earth Institute, this research estimates that adding 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020 results in one additional global death between 2020 and 2100.
That's equivalent to the average lifetime emissions of 12.8 people in the world... or 3.5 average Americans. By comparison, the mortality cost of carbon for one individual is the total carbon footprint of 25 Brazilians and 146 Nigerians.
According to the study, an additional 1 million metric tons of CO2e emissions in 2020 is expected to cause 226 more deaths in the 80 years between 2020 and 2100. "Since temperatures start hitting truly serious levels by 2050 under this scenario, most of the premature deaths would take place after that," a release for the study outlines.
Conversely, drastically reducing global warming emissions by 2050 would save some 74 million lives worldwide during the 21st century. For example, simply taking a coal-fired power plant offline and replacing it with a zero-emissions solution for just one year would "save 904 lives" over the course of the century.
The issue is less about reducing our personal carbon footprint and more about implementing ambitious policies, noted Bressler. Bressler told the New York Times that such a swap "would be a lot more impact than a personal decision," before emphasizing the importance of each action when it comes to reducing carbon.
