> Also, an economic depression reduces air pollution which would reduce deaths.
In the immediate term, sure. In the medium term an economic depression would weaken investment, research & development in new green technologies which would increase deaths as the effects of climate change worsen.
Or, it could spur some necessity is the mother of invention innovation for deployment.
Or a million other things could happen.
I am asking that you change your “would” to “could” to properly reflect the uncertainty.
We have a tendency to want to convince people of our views, which gets in the way of making our views more correct. This is challenging to fight, but necessary to learn.