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by Retric 1811 days ago
No, you don’t get 2.5 million deaths per year from fossil fuel usage. Though a few seriously flawed studies have gotten some very extreme numbers.

For example respiratory diseases represent ~5% of all Chinese deaths or about 500,000 in 2020. Which is a horrific sign of air pollution except China also has 350 million smokers. Looking at the non smoker population you see air pollution as a major factor, but again not all air pollution is from fossil fuels.

Air pollution is also associated to strokes and heart attacks, but again other factors are involved.
1 comments
karaterobot 1811 days ago
True, it is likely much higher[1], but the 2.4 million I cited comes from an older estimate that used different data.

[1] https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/02/deaths-fossil-fuel...

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Retric 1811 days ago
Yet here’s one saying 1.05 million. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23853-y

It’s easy to find flawed studies with silly results, the underlying reality is rarely so extreme.

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