By KUNA
Washington : Scientist find “cause and effect” link between high carbon dioxide emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere to human mortality rates, estimated at up to 20,000 human deaths worldwide, per year.
The first-ever study, published this week in the Geophysical Research Letters, examined carbon dioxide effects on the chemical and meteorological changes in the ozone, including cancer-causing particles in the air.
Using a state-of the art computer model, it found that for each increase of one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the resulting air pollution would result upwards of 20,000 related deaths worldwide, and many more cases of respiratory illness and asthma.
Increases in temperature from carbon dioxide raise the ozone’s rate of chemical production and puts higher levels of hazardous particle-carrying water vapor into the air.
“This is a cause and effect relationship, not just a correlation,” said the study’s lead investigator Mark Jacobs of Stanford University. Jacobs found that these effects were especially significant in big cities and urban areas where air-quality and pollution was severe.
The computer model, developed over the past 18 years, looked at changes in “ozone and particles through chemistry transport, clouds, emissions and other processes that affect pollution,” one of the researchers said.
“The link appears quite solid, the logical next step is to reduce carbon dioxide: that would reduce its warming effect and improve the health of the people around the world who are currently suffering from air pollution health problems associated with it,” the study’s researchers said.
In the US, California is one of the worst states for air-quality, and is estimated to result in 30 percent of the 1,000 air-pollution related deaths in the country.
The study coincides with a movement by scientists and environmentalists for federally-regulated carbon emission standards in the US, similar to those implemented by member countries within the European Union.