Using due valuation of life

In 1995, the Global Commons Institute and supporting governments successfully challenged what it terms "unequal life valuation" made by economic analysts to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). In attempting to estimate what level of resources the world's governments should put into trying to halt or slow the rate of global warming, the economists accepted the premise that many more lives would be lost in the poorer countries than the richer ones as global warming proceeded. However, by calculating the value of a human life at what a person is prepared to pay to avoid the risk of dying, they concluded that a life in a developed country is worth 15 times more than a life in a poorer, undeveloped country -- as if disposable wealth measured life's worth. The actual figures they produced were: value of an American or west European life, US$1.5 million; value of an African or Indian life, $100,000. The report was sent back for further work.