Human News

CNOOC's $4.5 billion purchase and planned investment in a Nigerian oil field might allow a portion of the oil it contains, say 200 million barrels, to be removed and refined for use earlier than if there had been no transactions, thus increasing supply and perhaps lowering world oil prices by, let's say, 0.1% for 10 years. If the average person spends 3% of income on oil products, that would save the average person 0.003% of income for a decade. If income is equivalent to, say, a third of the time spent earning that income, then income for a decade is equivalent to 1 life-year, and 0.003% of that is 1% of 1 life-day. For 6 billion people in the world, the total comes to 160,000 life-years.

Human News aims to devote 1 character to each 40,000 life-years, or 1000 average lives. Thus, this story can have 160,000 / 40,000 = about 4 characters.

Comparing the space devoted to articles in Human News and on the front page of the standard newspaper, this article occupies 0.3% of Human News and 3% of the standard newspaper.


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