Thousands Expected to Die Because of Climate Change-Caused Air Pollution

Scientists and other advocates have been warning about the effects of climate change for years. And new research indicates that if we can't curb it, hundreds of thousands of deaths could result.

New research from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, published Monday in Nature Climate Change, predicts that future climate change might lead to about 60,000 deaths across the world in 2030 and 260,000 deaths in 2100. This is because of how climate change affects global air pollution.

"Our finding that most models show a likely increase in deaths is the clearest signal yet that climate change will be detrimental to air quality and health," Jason West, study author and associate professor of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said in a statement.

How this works: Hotter temperatures speed up the chemical reactions that produce air pollutants that affect public health (i.e., ozone and particulate matter) and spur trees to give off more organic pollutants. Drier locations might cause worse air pollution because of an uptick in fires and windblown dust, and less rain.

But how does this lead to death? "Air pollution affects things like heart attacks, stroke, cardiopulmonary disease, and lung cancer," West told CBS News. "So because air pollution affects those causes it has a big effect on health."

Researchers used a number of global climate models to forecast these premature deaths by looking at predicted changes in ground-level air pollution that could be due to impending climate change, while taking into account the global population. They considered factors like population growth and future air pollution susceptibility. Five out of eight models indicated the increased premature deaths in 2030, with seven out of nine indicating them for 2100.

Approximately 5.5 million people across the world die prematurely because of air pollution, CBS News reports.

Limiting greenhouse gas emissions could help make a difference, according to researchers, though the U.S. may no longer be at the forefront of such issues. In June, President Donald Trump left the Paris climate accord, which is geared toward reducing carbon emissions globally.