Reducing Carbon Emissions to Save Millions of Lives: A Microeconomic Analysis

Article: New Study finds reducing carbon emissions could save hundreds of millions of
lives
Date of Article: 22/03/2018
Source of Article: The Chronicle- the independent news organization at Duke University
Word count of commentary: 750 words
Date of commentary: 20/09/2018
Subject of the commentary: Microeconomics (Externalities)

Link to the article: https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/03/new-study-finds-
reducing-carbon-emissions-could-save-hundreds-of-millions-of-lives
The article by Claire Ballentine talks about reducing carbon dioxide emissions which has the
potential to save millions of lives in 154 of the largest urban cities especially the ones in Asia
and Africa.
According to the article, a research was conducted by Duke Scientists which showed that- air
pollution leads to 153 million premature deaths. These deaths can be drastically reduced if
the countries reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. Drew Shindell- professor from
Nicholas School of Environment states that the ones who have studied earth sciences have
knowledge about air pollution and with historical data, they can certainly say about the
number of deaths in a city according to the given pollution scenarios.
The article reflects upon the premature deaths due to air pollution all over the world. Air
pollution is a negative externality caused due to production of goods which emit high density
of smoke in the air. The usage of fossil fuels and energy resources in the production process
emits smoke as the by-product. This smoke consists of carbon-di-oxide, nitrous oxide and
methane. This by-product is harmful to both the residents as well as the producers. To
understand how the society adapts to this negative externality, let us consider the diagram
below:
Assume an industry that manufactures plastic bottles. MSB is the Marginal Social Benefit
from the production of the plastic bottles, which is downward sloping, as the production
increases, the marginal benefit falls. MPC is the marginal private cost of production, which is
borne by the producers and MSC is the marginal social cost which is borne by the society due
to the air pollution released by the industry. This cost is greater than MPC, reflecting that the
cost of production to the society is higher than that incurred by the manufacturers. This cost
is not just the monetary cost but also the cost of their health. The society suffers from lung