Death
"Every year heat kills tens of thousands of people.
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Their breathing grows shallow, their heart rates
flutter, their muscles spasm, and then they die."
Death rates from greenhouse pollution are increasing
and are expected to multiply.
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It's estimated that one death will result from the lifetime pollution output (1,000 tons)
of an average American.
"A rapid phaseout of fossil-fuel-related emissions" is
"needed to save millions of lives."
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With 20th century disasters, "an annual death toll in the millions was common."
Since 1965, however, there's been dramatic improvement:
“There were a variety of causes for this steep decline in death rates," such as:
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Environmental interventions
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Nutritional improvements
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Medicine​ & access to health care
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Education & standards of living
The reduction in famines was
"‘one of the [world's] great ... triumphs’.”
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Reasons included:
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"increasing agricultural yields ...
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sanitation; increased trade;
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reductions … in extreme poverty”
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“technological progress [and]
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the spread of stable democracies”
There were more than 100 million war deaths in the 20th century.
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In recent decades, there've been far fewer deaths from violence.
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Worldwide, homicide rates may have dropped by 20% since 1990.
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Deaths by genocide have also declined during the past 40 years.
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“We may now live in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence.”
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Why the increases in life expectancy? ​
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- Urbanization, women’s education
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- Birth control, women’s employment
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- Improvements with infant health & obstetrics
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- Vaccinations, antibiotics, plus
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The 21st century has been the:
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- most peaceful (see above)
- most healthy (see above)
- most prosperous
- and most populous
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epoch in human history.
Will we repeat the mistakes made 100 years ago?
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Can we stop creating the atmospheric conditions
for more droughts and floods,
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and consequently more famine and fighting?