{"id":6791,"date":"2025-07-09T07:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=6791"},"modified":"2025-07-09T07:03:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T07:03:00","slug":"water-water-everywhere-but-not-a-drop-to-drink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=6791","title":{"rendered":"Water, Water, Everywhere . . . but Not a Drop to Drink"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By MIKE MAGEE<\/p>\n

In the wake of last week\u2019s human tragedy in Texas, it would be easy (and appropriate) to focus on the role played by Trump\u2019s reckless recent dismantling of FEMA and related federal agencies. But to do so would be to accept that the event was an anomaly, or as\u00a0Trump labeled it<\/a> on Sunday on his way to a round of golf at Bedminster, \u201ca hundred year catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, tragedies like this are the direct result of global warming, and last week\u2019s suffering and loss are destined to be followed by who knows how many others here and in communities around the world.<\/p>\n

In 2009 President Obama joined global leaders in New York City for the Opening Session of the UN. One of the transboundary issues discussed was Global Warming. All agreed that the Kyoto Protocol had failed. It failed because the target to decrease emissions by some 5% was too low. It failed because large transitional nations like India and China were excluded. And\u00a0it failed<\/a> because US leadership opted out.<\/p>\n

The global community today has a deeper hole out of which it must dig. In doing so we would do well to focus on health and safety as outcome measures, and define strategies to manage the obvious consequences of this ongoing crisis.<\/p>\n

Two decades ago,\u00a0the warnings\u00a0<\/a>were clear. Left unattended, we would soon not only need to plan mitigation, but also need to prepare and resource intervention to deal with inevitable human injury and disease fall-out. Of course, back then, we could not have predicted that wise disease interventions in climate ravaged hot spots around the globe, like expansion of USAID funding in the Bush and Obama administrations, would be\u00a0X\u2019d out<\/a>\u00a0under Trump\/Musk. Who could have imagined such reckless and ultimately self-destructive moves?<\/p>\n

And yet, here we are:<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Natural disasters from storms, floods, drought, wildfires and excessive heat, as predicted, are now the norm not the exception. These realities in turn cause direct injuries, mass migrations, and diversion of resources which might normally go to societal infrastructure.<\/p>\n

2. Rising temperatures are expanding the range of various disease vectors. including mosquitoes, ticks and rodents. Malaria will occur in higher altitudes than before, and dengue fever will appear farther north. Ticks are now second only to mosquitoes as carries of human disease. But a far more dangerous human vector, one capable of literally turning back a century of progress in combating infectious diseases at home and abroad has landed on our shores. His name is RFK Jr.<\/p>\n

3. Food and waterborne illnesses are becoming more prevalent due to the higher temperatures which encourage their occurrence and spread.\u00a0 FDA deregulation and the hobbling of the EPA now magnify this downside risk.<\/p>\n

4. Air quality has declined as ozone, particulate matter, and allergens combined with heat create a deadly brew. Seniors as a result suffer more cardiac and respiratory disease, and youngsters more asthma.<\/p>\n

5. Water scarce areas are expanding faster\u2013creating famine, hygienic failure, migration and violence. Lack of availability of clean safe water expands the already serious burden of waterborne diseases.<\/p>\n

6. Decline in water quantity and quality negatively compromises production of crops, livestock and fisheries\u2013expanding the number of global citizens who suffer hunger and famine.<\/p>\n

This list was logical and the impact predictable two decades ago. It came less than one year after\u00a0Hurricane Katrina<\/a>\u00a0made land on August 23, 2005, in New Orleans costing $161 billion and 1,833 human lives. Al Gore\u2019s\u00a0\u201cInconvenient Truth,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was first released the following year on May 24, 2006. And his was not the only voice at the time.<\/p>\n

Georgetown University\u2019s Lawrence Gostin presented a policy laden argument\u00a0in JAMA<\/a>\u00a0that ended with this prophetic statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cGlobal health, like global climate change, may soon become a matter so important to the world\u2019s future that it demands international attention, and no state can escape the responsibility to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

For\u00a0105 souls\u00a0<\/a>(at latest count) from central Texas, time has run out. But if one is to believe the current administration and its enablers, this latest \u201cAct of God\u201d, waged on young Christian campers among others, has no human fingerprints on it.<\/p>\n

Mike Magee M.D. is a Medical Historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America\u2019s Medical Industrial Complex<\/a>. (Grove\/2020)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MIKE MAGEE In the wake of last week\u2019s human tragedy in Texas, it would be easy (and appropriate) to focus on the role played by Trump\u2019s reckless recent dismantling of FEMA and related federal agencies. But to do so would be to accept that the event was an anomaly, or as\u00a0Trump labeled it on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}