Global Warming to blame for the Swine Flu?

Global Warming Climate Change is the new Al-Qaeda

If there is a terrorist attack somewhere in the world chances are that Al-Qaeda will get the initial blame, correctly or incorrectly. During the mid 70's Illich Ramriez Sanchez, otherwise known as 'Carlos the Jackal', was also blamed for nearly all attacks. Now we have a new villain to blame.

It was just a matter of time until someone, somewhere would try to link the swine flu to global warming climate change. Jean Williams, who writes for the Seattle examiner, opines in a article titled "Could deadly swine flu be caused by climate change or polluted water" whether climate change could possibly be the cause of this flu. Ms. Williams says that Steven Sanderson, head of the Wildlife Conservation Society, believes this to be true.

“..even minor (climate) disturbances can have far reaching consequences on diseases”. He added, “The term ‘climate change’ conjures images of melting ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal cities and nations, but just as important is how increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation levels will change the distribution of dangerous pathogens”.

Sounds like Al-Qaeda to me.

In recent years climate change has been blamed (or people tried to link it to) , directly or indirectly, on the following things.

• US Airways Flight 1574 (the one that crash landed in the Hudson).

“There is evidence both in North America and in Europe that birds are shifting their territories,” said Joel L. Cracraft, curator in charge of the department of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. “And that has been correlated with global warming.”[1]

• The Death of the Loch Ness Monster

“Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.”[2]

• The Rising Cost of Beer

“Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said climate change likely will cause a decline in the production of malting barley in parts of New Zealand and Australia. Malting barley is a key ingredient of beer.

'It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up,' Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention.”[3]

• Increase of Kidney Stone cases

“Researchers at the University of Texas say global warming will trigger a dramatic rise in kidney stones in the United States.

According to their study, warming temperatures over the next 42 years will cause a 30-per-cent jump in cases of nephrolithiasis, or kidney stone disease, in some regions of the country.”[4]

• Thin Whales

“The team says its study offers the first evidence that global warming could be harming whales, because it restricts their food supplies. And they say the discovery could only have been made by killing the animals.”[5]

• Increase in Shark Attacks

“Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. 'You'll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn't in the past with some regularity,' he said.”[6]

• Black Hawk Down (yes, as in what happened in Somalia)

“In Somalia back in 1993, climate change, according to 11 three- and four-star generals, resulted in a drought which led to famine,” said Markey (D-Mass).

“That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send in forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Black Hawk Down. There was this scene where we have all of our American troops under fire because they have been put into the middle of this terrible situation,” he added.[7]

• The Death of Costa Rican Frogs

"It is believed climate change is raising temperatures allowing a skin fungus to enter the places where the amphibians resided," he [Alvaro Herrero, a biologist with Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute] said."[8]


There is much more, simply do a Google search on it.

This thing is starting to remind me of the South Park episode called Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow.

"We didn't listen!!!"

Swine Flu goes International...Can the US deal?

Having an engineering project to oversee in San Luis Potosi Mexico, I have a vested interest in the latest breakout of the Swine Flu. My problem is that San Luis or SLP for short, is in the middle of an outbreak of the killer bug, and the city has up their health warning to level 4, as the death total for the virus surpassed the 150 person mark. In conjunction, my company has suspended all travel to the country while the world gets a handle on the issue.

Yet, a much bigger problem looms in the horizon as the epidemic has now reached out past our southern border, and made its way onto the International scene. It is now reported that the resilient little bug has found its way into the United States, Canada, Britain the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, sending the World Health Organization (WHO) scrambling for a containment and eradication plan.

A spokesman for WHO has confirmed that in the US, high school students returning from a spring break trip to Mexico have contracted and spread the virus. WHO also confirmed that an additional case of the flu has been reported in the US. With the latest reports showing an outbreak of the virus in at least six different countries, the World Health Organization decided to raise its alert level to Phase 4.

While deaths attributed to the flu are not new in this country, there is a major concern that humans may not have natural immunities to fight off this latest strain that is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses.

In a worse case scenario , the US government has estimate that a large scale pandemic would infect over 90 million Americans, with nearly 10 million requiring some form of hospitalization. Such an outbreak would cause a problem in hospitals around the country, some of which are not equipped to handle the expected influx of patients.

Extending outside the health care industries, the pandemic would cause the closing of schools to prevent the further spreading of the illness. The US Economy could also be affected, as business would have to deal with a temporary shortage of labor, as well as restrictions on travel and shipping. It has been estimated that a severe pandemic could shrink U.S. output by about 5.5 percent.

Scrambling to find answers, the Obama Administration, in a statement made by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, “the U.S. is preparing as if the swine flu outbreak were a full pandemic.”

Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has added, "We have a playbook that was developed and is being followed," though "It's a substantially better picture than what we faced three years ago." Leavitt is the man who oversaw pandemic planning for President George W. Bush during the Bird Flu crisis of 2005.

It remains to be seen how the current Administration is able respond and contained this latest International crisis now threatening the US.