Sunday, May 06, 2007

$10 per person will beat global warming

Kevin Grandia of the global warming denialist-busting website, DeSmogBlog, has done the calculations - it only takes $10 per person per year to save the planet.

He broadcast this email (which I amended to include his updated calculations).

4 May 07

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it would cost .12% of the world's domestic product to substantially reduce our collective greenhouse gas emissions.

  • GDP of the world economy: US$60 trillion
  • .12% of $60 trillion: $70 billion
  • Total population of the earth: 6.5 billion
  • Cost per person to significantly reduce heat-trapping gas worldwide: $10 a year
  • Cost of saving the planet from droughts, famine, mass flooding, species extinction and rising sea levels: priceless.
His maths: $60 trillion/.0012/6.5 billion = $10 (rounded figures). He points out that it is more useful to break down the global figure by country and filter it though its GDP. For example, for Gambians this would cost $2.00 per head, and for Americans the cost would be $478.

Tags: ,

1 comment:

Mark Lawrence said...

I can appreciate adjusting the $10 per capita for GDP, but how do you adjust it for greenhouse gas emission impact? Australia emits more greenhouse gasses per capita – so should we be paying more? Or at least doing more?

Worth thinking about leading up to the budget in Australia.

I'm enjoying your blog. Please keep it up. :)