By the end of the century, mortality could quadruple compared to current levels and reach about 30 million people a year, even with the introduction of emission reduction measures.
A team of scientists from around the world published these findings in the journal Nature Communications.
If emissions go uncontrolled, the death toll will increase to 44 million people annually, the researchers say.
According to their calculations, the mortality rate associated with air pollution will increase 5 times, and the mortality rate associated with the increased temperature of the planet will increase 7 times. Therefore, researchers have identified global warming as a more important health risk factor than air pollution for at least 20% of the world's population.
"These findings highlight the urgent need for stronger climate policies to prevent future loss of human life," the scientists said.
They presented the spatial distribution of annual mortality in the following illustrations:
Source: nature.com.
According to these forecasts, in Ukraine, from 2000 to 2090, the number of deaths due to climate change will increase from 41 to 127 thousand people per year, and due to air pollution, the number of deaths will drop from 72 to 18 thousand people. We would like to add that the improvement of air quality in our country is, unfortunately, not due to the eco-modernization of the industry, but to the destruction of its part and the reduction of production activities due to the war.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote that extreme weather conditions caused by global warming can lead to the disappearance of popular food products and cause the decline of the gastronomic culture of a number of countries. Among the candidates for oblivion, experts name Dutch gouda cheese and Dijon mustard.
