Reducing the flow of greenhouse gases that can lead to global warming might prevent up to three million premature deaths a year by 2100 according to a new study LiveScience reported.
"We found reducing greenhouse gases could lead to a pretty striking reduction in air pollutants, and thus a pretty significant impact on lives saved," Jason West, an atmostpheric scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told LiveScience.
West and his fellow researchers came up with a global model that stimulates possible future scenarios between death and air pollutants like ozone and particulate matter or tiny particles suspended in the air.
"Climate change is an important problem that needs strong action, and our study suggests serious benefits to reducing greenhouse gases in addition to helping slow down climate change," West said. "Many times, long-term global problems such as climate change are hard to act on, but here we show that reducing greenhouse gas emissions can have near-term, local benefits for health, as well, which might strengthen the arguments for action with governments and citizens."
Researchers discovered 300,000 to 700,000 premature deaths could be prevented by 2030 through forcefully reducing greenhouse gas emissions LiveScience reported. Two-thirds of these would be in China, and by 2050 800,000 to 1.8 premature deaths could be prevented.
This number would be expected to decrease to 1.4 and 3 million premature deaths a year by 2100.
According to LiveScience, researchers estimated that decreasing carbon dioxide emissions would total between $50 and $380 based on the standard cost analysis or the monetary amount associated with saving lives.
"This is much more than the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so this can justify reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the point of view of human health," West said.
A new summary about climate science is set to come out Friday from The International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
