Water, water, everywhere. . . But not drinking – Healthcare Blog
Mike Magee
After the human tragedy in Texas last week, it’s easy (and appropriate) to focus on Trump’s recent focus on the role of FEMA and related federal agencies. But doing so is to accept that the incident is an anomaly, or Trump labeled a round of golf “a hundred-year disaster” in Bedminster on Sunday.
In fact, tragedies like this are the direct result of global warming, with the suffering and losses last week destined to follow, and who knows how many people are in the community here and around the world.
In 2009, President Obama joined the global leader in New York City to attend the UN opening ceremony. One of the cross-border issues discussed is global warming. Everyone agreed that the Kyoto agreement failed. It failed because the goal of reducing emissions by about 5% is too low. The failure is because large transition countries like India and China are excluded. It failed because the U.S. leader chose to quit.
There is a deeper loophole that must be tapped in today’s global community. By doing so, we will be well focused on health and safety as outcome measures and define strategies to manage the obvious consequences of this ongoing crisis.
Twenty years ago, the warning was clear. Unattended, we need not only planning mitigation measures, but also preparing and resource intervention to address the inevitable effects of human harm and disease. Of course, at that time, we could not predict that disease interventions under Trump/Musk had disrupted global hotspots, such as the USDA funding of Bush and the expansion of the Obama administration. Who can imagine this reckless and ultimately self-destructive behavior?
But, here we:
1. As predicted, natural disasters from storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and excessive heat are now the norm. These realities in turn lead to direct harm, large-scale migration and the transfer of resources that may often be transferred to social infrastructure.
2. Temperature rise is expanding the range of various disease vectors. Includes mosquitoes, ticks and rodents. Malaria will occur at a higher level than before, while dengue will appear in the north. Now, ticks are second only to mosquitoes, as mosquitoes with human diseases. But a more dangerous vector of humans, which can literally look back on a century of progress to combat infectious diseases at home and abroad, has landed on our shores. His name is Xiao RFK.
3. Due to higher temperatures, dietary and water-borne diseases are becoming more common, and this temperature encourages its occurrence and spread. The FDA deregulation and EPA troubles will now narrow this downside risk.
4. Air quality has dropped to ozone, particulate matter and allergens, heating produces fatal brewing. As a result, older people suffer from more heart and respiratory diseases and younger people suffer from more asthma.
5. Water-scarce areas are expanding faster famines, sanitation failures, immigration and violence. The lack of clean and safe water availability increases the already severe burden of water-borne diseases.
6. Declining water quantity and quality can negatively affect crops, livestock and fisheries yields – expanding the number of global citizens suffering from hunger and famine.
The list is logical and predictable impact twenty years ago. Hurricane Katrina created less than a year in New Orleans on August 23, 2005, costing $16.1 billion and 1,833 human lives. Al Gore's “Inconvenience Truth” was first released on May 24, 2006. He wasn't the only voice at that time.
Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University proposed a policy in JAMA to end with this prophetic statement:
“Like global climate change, global health may soon become something so important to the future of the world that it requires international attention and no country can escape the responsibility to take action.”
For 105 souls from Central Texas (latest), time has run out. But if the current government and its promoters are to be trusted, there is no human fingerprint of the latest “acts of God” launched by young Christian campers, etc.
Mike Magee, MD, is a medical historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of Code Blue: The Inside Medical Industry Complex of America. (Grove/2020)
