Rise In Climate-Related Deaths Will Surpass All Infectious Diseases, Economist Testifies

More people will die from climate-driven temperature changes in 2100 than the number who die today from all infectious diseases combined, a leading economist told members of Congress last week. Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and the co-director of the Climate Impact Lab (CIL), a collaboration of climate scientists, economists, computational experts, researchers and analysts at multiple universities who are working to establish a precise data-driven estimate of the impact of the climate crisis. The Lab’s work is not done, but Greenstone revealed some of what they’ve concluded so far.