Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.4: More Fossil Fuel Use, Fewer Flood-Related Deaths
Sources: Boden, Marland, Andres (2010); EM-DAT International Disaster Database; World Bank, World Development
Indicators (WDI) Online Data, April 2014
Again, the doomsayers are not looking at the big-picture data. If they were, they would appreciate the
value of energy in building sturdier coastlines and better levees and seawalls. The more fossil fuel we use,
the safer—dramatically, dramatically safer—we become from climate-related dangers.
We can also observe this from the perspective of comparing high-energy developed countries with low-
energy underdeveloped countries. Here are the G7 countries compared to the world as a whole in death
rates from climate-related causes.
When comparing storm death rates we see that developed nations fare much better than the world av-
erage. Note that the United States is making the G7 numbers higher because it is much more vulnerable
to storms than the G7 average of countries. Of these countries, the United States is the only country with
major tornadoes and has received a significant number of landfalling hurricanes over the decades.
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Figure 5.5: More Development, Less Climate Danger
