Global climate emergency to kill 83 million people by 2100

Rising temperatures to place four times the population of Australia in danger if no further action is taken against the world’s climate emergency.

Greenhouse gas emissions contributes to rising temperatures globally.

New research by R. Daniel Bressler from Columbia University’s Earth Institute reveals increasing greenhouse gas emissions could contribute to 83 million excess deaths between 2020 and 2100.  

“By the end of the century, the projected 4.6 million excess yearly deaths would put climate change 6th on the 2017 Global Burden of Disease risk factor risk list,” Bressler says. 

Published in Nature Communications, the study entitled The mortality cost of carbon may trigger many to think twice about how their lifestyle generates emissions.

Findings of the study show for every 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide, one person will die of a heat-related cause with temperatures set to rise by 4.1 degrees celsius by 2100. 

This metric is equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 12.8 average global individuals or 3.5 Americans. 

The highest mortality rates are expected to occur in some of the hottest regions of the world including Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

It’s also important to note that the study only accounts for temperature-related mortality, excluding climate-mortality pathways such as the impact of climate change on infectious disease, food supply and extreme natural events such as flooding. 

Rising temperatures could contribute to 83 million excess deaths within the next century.

Bressler says this metric could be used by governments and companies to determine how they choose to monitor high emission-generating activities. 

“The emissions contributions of these groups are usually marginal relative to the aggregate emissions of the world economy from the industrial revolution through the twenty-first century,” Bressler says.

“If an organisation reduces its 2020 carbon dioxide emissions by one million metric tons this will save 226 lives in expectation over the course of the twenty-first century.” 

Temperatures have increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) globally since 1880 according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

Decreasing emissions so that there is only a 2.4 degrees Celsius increase by the end of the century could save 74 million lives. 

Written By Rebecca Borg