Global Warming Will Kill 83 Million People in the Next 80 Years
A new study puts a cost on the mortality caused by climate change, which could lead to an increase in the price of carbon pollution
People rest at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Portland on June 28, 2021, after swathes of the U.S. and Canada endured record-setting heat that lead to deaths of hundreds of people.
Photographer: Kathryn Elsesser/AFP via Getty Images
A population equivalent to that of Germany — 83 million people — could be killed by 2100 because of rising temperatures caused by greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new study that might influence how markets price carbon pollution.
The research from Columbia University’s Earth Institute introduces a new metric to help companies and governments assess damages wrought by climate change this century. Accounting for the “mortality cost of carbon” could give polluters new reasons to clean up by dramatically raising the cost of emissions.