Monday, July 14, 2008

More and more scare tactics

I love to get up in the morning and read the paper. I have this thing set up via google where certain articles are dropped in my inbox. One of the things that I want to read about is medical issues. It shouldn't come as a surprise as I spent the first three years of my college career as a double major in biology and chemistry (I have minors in both) and was planning on medical school. Boy, did my life change!

Well, I can't sleep so I went to my inbox and saw this particular headline:

Global warming may increase kidney stones: researchers

Now there are two possible responses I will have when I read something like this. It is laughable or just stupid. In this case, it wins both. OK, I will admit that I am a global warming skeptic. Just because every politician talks about and even some religious leaders do (even his All-Holiness, Patriarch Vartholomaios I of Constantinople has made this an issue hence why he is called the "Green Patriarch'), does not mean that I am going to subscribe to it. And I won't. Further research is clearly needed that man plays any part in the natural warming and cooling trends of this planet.

However, this issue has just been so overyhyped by the media and I am tired of it. In fact, in my first hour class this past year, it was the running joke that Rome fell because of global warming. I still get a chuckle out of that. Now, everything has to be reserached under the hermeneutic of global warming. It causes this; it causes that. Now, I'm being told that global warming is now going to affect my insurance rates because I'm going to need to see a urologist to remove kidney stones.

The researchers' rationale: Temperatures go up because of global warming thus increasing the chances of dehydration. Kidney stones are formed from dissolved minerals and the inability to maintain the equilibrium of the body from normal means of hydration will not suffice.

This is complete bunk. The researchers at the University of Texas have got to be smarter than this. I applied to go to grad school at UT. They didn't provide me any funding though so I blew them off. Maybe I'm glad that I did. Don't get me wrong--UT is a very reputable school. But if these researchers are going off of trends let's educate them with some basic facts.

1) Most Americans are dehydrated. This is a fact. Americans don't drink nearly the amount of water that they need and this trend has only increased over the last 20 years with new soft drinks and such which dehydrate you all the more.

2) Americans have confused hunger pangs for dehydration pangs. We all get that feeling in our stomach which we, most often, thinks that we are hungry. Most of the time it is telling us that we are THIRSTY. But we eat to cure it instead and don't drink water to go with the meal. Are you wondering also why there are so many overweight and obese people in the United States? Maybe global warming causes that, too! We don't drink enough water; that's why Americans are dehydrated. And that does cause kidney stones to form.

Global warming is the buzz word now in almost every aspect of life. We can't drive SUVS. Why? Global warming. We can't have our home temperature at 75 degrees in the summer. Why? GLobal warming. We have to go to the urologist to remove our kidney stones. Why? Global warming. Where will it end? Can it end? Again, we must realize that the whole issue of global warming is not settled science. It has become a dogma, a religious doctrine for many like Algore. And as much as many people are tired of Christians and Muslims threatening hell on those who don't believe the way they do, I'm equally sick and tired of these global warming panderers saying that terrible things will befall me if I don't think the way they do. Convince me; don't try to scare me. I teach kids for a living--that's scary enough!

1 comment:

slpalo said...

There's a website that might interest you, Chris - it's called Global Warming Hoax.

On the left of the site is a list of current articles and blogs in relation to global warming. One I read today discussed that livestock is a major contributor to global warming and causes 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions. Who knows - we all may have to become vegitarians someday soon... food for thought.