Report: Phasing out fossil fuels could save 3.6 million lives per year
Switching from fossil fuels to renewables could save 3.6 million lives each year, while slowing climate change, according to research by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other international science centers.
Their findings, published March 25 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to substantial health benefits that could accompany efforts to cut carbon emissions. Those include reduced deaths from illnesses linked to air pollution as well as increased rainfall in drought-prone areas of the world.
“We want to make the planet carbon neutral, so the nice thing about that is it will get rid of the air pollution,” as well, said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a co-author of the study and professor of atmospheric science at Scripps.
Ramanathan proposed the recent study to colleagues, including researcher Jos Lelieveld of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and researchers at institutions in Cyprus and Canada.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/story/2019-04-02/cutting-carbon-emissions-could-save-lives-climate-change-scripps-oceanography-ucsd-pollution-air-quality