If you look at
the World Health
Organization’s
list of global
health threats,
number one is
climate change,
believe it or not !
Pandemics were down
in third place, behind
‘non-communicable
diseases’ such as
diabetes and obesity.
The UK Lancet Countdown
is a coalition of 35 universities
and UN agencies that produces
a report to keep these ideas
in the public eye.
In 2018 it said climate change
was ‘the biggest global health
threat of the 21st century’.
The Countdown’s Executive
Summary makes vague
insinuations that climate
is causing serious public
health problems.
But when you look
at actual data,
climate-related
mortality has
actually collapsed,
and is now less
than half the level
it was in 1990,
when the
dataset starts.
Reality is a public
health triumph !
When considering hunger,
the Countdown ignores
crop yields, preferring
a bizarre proxy:
‘global yield potential’
... which is computer
model nonsense !
Real-world
crop yield data
are available --
so we don't need
computer models !
We are winning the battle
against tropical diseases
and hunger.
But the Countdown
resorts to yet another
proxy measure,
‘suitability for disease
transmission’, that
makes no sense.
And a peculiar focus
on dengue, a minor
disease, that happens
to be one of the few
diseases that has
increased.
Vast sums of money
available for climate
change research
are being squandered.
A slowly warming world
will improve health,
especially because
most of the warming
has been in cold areas,
during the coldest
six months of the year,
and at night.
Cool weather causes
far more health problems
than warm weather !