Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sources: Met Office Hadley Centre HadCRUT4 dataset; Etheridge et al. (1998); Keeling et al. (2001); MacFarling
Meure et al. (2006); Merged Ice-Core Record Data, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Before you look at the data, ask yourself: Given what you hear in the news about the climate becoming
more and more dangerous, what would you expect the change in the annual rate of climate-related deaths
to be since CO 2 in the atmosphere started increasing significantly (about eighty years ago). When I speak
at colleges, I sometimes get answers such as five times, even a hundred times greater death rates. And
from the headlines, it does look as though the tragedies like Superstorm Sandy are the new normal.
The data say otherwise.
In the last eighty years, as CO 2 emissions have most rapidly escalated, the annual rate of climate-related
deaths worldwide fell by an incredible rate of 98 percent. 41 That means the incidence of death from climate
is fifty times lower than it was eighty years ago.
Figure 1.9: More Fossil Fuels, Fewer Climate-Related Deaths
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