Global Warming Quantified

A recent report published in Nature estimates that 150,000 deaths per year are caused by global warming. The link between global warming and the deaths are diseases that flourish in warmer temperatures as well as smog, which is worstened by higher temperatures. While the pseudo-science crowd blames 'thugocracies and hostility to market economics'. However, this is not a fair charge to make because the rising temperatures in, say Kenya, are not due much to Kenyan emissions of carbon dioxide and had Kenya had free elections and embraced market economics 50 years ago, there wouldn't have been much of a change in the effect of global warming. However, if 50 years ago, developed countries, particularly the United States, promoted the use of carbon-reducing technology in manufacturing and imposed more regulations on fuel economy and automobile emissions, there would have been a significant difference in terms of how much global warming had occured. It is a significant problem that had the U.S. not abandoned the Kyoto Treaty, could be changed. Under Kyoto, the countries that caused most of the current problems, the developed ones, would be responsible for reducing their emissions, while developing countries would be exempt now from the regulations. In the future that may change as their economies grow, but the aim of Kyoto was to reduce the externality developed countries imposed on poor developing economies, particularly those in the tropics.