There are several things to consider when it comes to the basics about climate change and health risks when we speak globally. In the U.S. the problems have been better documented, have stirred bigger news, reports, and controversies, and yet haven’t done much in the way of actual scientifically based research.
The first question to be asked by many is whether climate change actually poses serious health threats. Short term threats, that is, as the longer we go, the more desperate the situation will become, as recent reports have shown – the state of Florida alone will by 2100 lose the bigger part of its territory to the sea.
The Obama administration seems to be pushing the general opinion towards answering with an overwhelming ‘yes’ the above dilemma. Yet, however dire the threat of climate change is to the planet, however noble the quest to vex public opinion into accepting climate change as an issue by implying their lives are at stake – the science is against this.
To bring the POTUS’ final months in office to a triumphant end, the White House is trying to make climate change the biggest issue there is in the eyes of the public. And quite rightly so. But the assumptions and pseudo-science that the report delivered in conjuncture to this states that several problems will worsen: asthma is supposed to become a much bigger problem, diseases of the heart will increase in frequency, and also, disease carrying insects’ numbers will increase.
These all seem valid hypotheses relating and caused by climate change. The problem behind this report is that the science surrounding these very self-conscious bullet-points on the White House’s agenda – it’s more than a little shaky. This is not far-fetched stretch, or bend of truths presented by scientific research. There is little scientific research done on the matter.
And the point of fact is that the report is presented in such a tone so as to convey that this is clearly the case – it is impervious that we act, otherwise we will all get asthma, or be bitten by infected bugs, or maybe have a heart attack on account of the heat.
This is clearly over-the-top.
Those insects, as most of the scientific reports point out, have been brought over on trade vessels, be it by air, or by sea. People are not collapsing due to the heat – we live in the age of air conditioning. Also, heart disease treatment is getting increasingly better.
Yes, there are much more ticks in the forests of our nation. Yes, there are subsequently more cases of Lyme disease. Yet this has little to do with climate change. It has more to do with the re-growing process of our previously deforested areas, and the consequential resurgence of deer.
Patrick Kinney, climate and health expert from Columbia, says we don’t know if climate change’s effect on people is getting worse. Mary H. Hayden of the Atmospheric Research Center in Boulder says we can’t use climate change like this.
It’s a lot more complex than how the guys who made the report make it out to be. However noble the cause, people must never be misled by ambiguity. Not by the White House.
Image source: abc.net.aucialis mg
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