Negligent homicide: Study finds climate change could kill 1 billion mostly poor people

According to a new study, almost a billion mostly poor people could die from the effects of climate change by the end of the century. If climate change were 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the number of deaths would be catastrophic, according to a study published in the journal energies. If this is true, it means that even staying within the limits of the Paris climate agreement – ​​which sets 2°C as the upper limit for global warming – will still result in a humanitarian catastrophe.

The authors, Joshua Pearce from Western University in Ontario, Canada, and Richard Parncutt from the University of Graz in Austria, conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining deaths from the effects of climate change. They found that “every time 1,000 tons of fossil carbon is burned, a future human being will be killed.” The researchers concluded that “if warming reaches or exceeds 2°C this century, wealthier people will do the most will be responsible for killing about a billion mostly poorer people through anthropogenic global warming, which is comparable to involuntary or negligent homicide.”

The scientists emphasized the role of wealthy people, as research shows that they are disproportionately among the so-called “super-emitters”. “In 2019, a full 40% of total US emissions were associated with income flows to the top 10% of households,” the authors explained in one Recent study in the PLOS climate.

Climate change is “a ‘new anomaly’ and is now happening in real time – the effects of climate change are hitting us in the form of unprecedented, dangerous extreme weather events,” said Dr. Michael E. Mann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Salon in July.