Climate change: is there anything it can't do?

(117 Fahrenheit)

The contempt in which people are held by the Elite is unbounded. You will believe anything, or at least nod your head willingly to whatever bullsh!t they dump into the news.

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Unfortunately, they are often right, at least about how willing many people are to accept the excrement they throw in our faces.

Rather than laughing in their faces when they assert the most ridiculous things, many people nod along sagely and get angry at those of us who call out the BS.

Kids are apparently getting kidney stones at an increasing rate, and the cause is obviously climate change according to “experts.”

“Experts.” That word should only be used in scare quotes these days. An “expert” is nothing more than a person willing to spew the most ridiculous nonsense at people with a straight face, hoping that they will buy their BS without complaint. Masks work. Solar power will save the Earth. Climate change causes kidney stones.

I mean, REALLY? Really? You expect us to believe that?

Experts are speculating that climate change and other factors are driving the increase in kidney stone cases among children and teens.

Experts told NBC News that just three decades ago, kidney stones were largely a disease that affected middle-aged White men, but they now increasingly affect children and teens, especially in the summer.

The number of annual kidney stone cases increased by 16% from 1997 to 2012, according to a Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, with 15- to 19-year-olds seeing the greatest increase in cases. Kidney stone incidents were 52% higher among females within this age bracket while males become more susceptible to the disease at age 25, according to NBC News.

Kidney stones among children doubled from 1997 to 2012, according to the study, while Black children and adults suffered kidney stones at a higher rate than their White peers.

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This story has everything. White men are suffering less, women and children hit hard, but Blacks hit harder still. Throw in some climate change and you have a Just Stop Oil and BLM dream story. They really should have found a transgender angle to complete the trifecta.

Doctors have not determined exactly what is driving this increase among youths but speculated that climate change, a diet of ultraprocessed foods and the increased use of antibiotics among children are causing dehydration, according to NBC News.

“My research group has focused on the relationship between temperature and kidney stone presentations for a decade,” Dr. Gregory Tasian, a pediatric urologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told Fox News Digital when asked about climate change and kidney stones.

The climate change angle? If you get dehydrated you are more likely to get kidney stones, which is obviously true. After all, the stones are caused by minerals precipitating out of the urine and forming stones. The more concentrated the urine, the more likely you get stones.

Fine, whatever. The lesson is to drink more water.

But let’s think about the climate change/temperature link, and is it real? Let’s assume that the problem isn’t caused by a change in diet, drinking habits, or anything similar, and assume that 100% of the cause is children being exposed to higher temperatures. Would that suggest that changes in temperature caused by climate change have anything to do with the increase in kidney stones?

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No. If increased exposure to heat has anything to do with the problem, another factor might have just a tiny impact:

People are moving to America’s South at a rapid pace, and the difference in temperatures between New York and Florida far outweighs any one or two-degree increase in temperature that is speculated to be caused by climate change. The average high temperature in New York City in August is 84 degrees. In Tampa it is 91. In Tucson it is 100.

So if the problem is climate, maybe the fact that people are moving from cooler climates to hotter climates might explain a bit more than a 1-degree change at any one location.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. population center is on track this decade to take a southern swerve for the first time in history, and it’s because of people like Owen Glick, who moved from California to Florida more than a year ago.

Last year, the South outgrew other U.S. regions by well over 1 million people through births outpacing deaths and domestic and international migration, according to population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Northeast and Midwest lost residents, and the West grew by an anemic 153,000 people, primarily because a large number of residents left for a different U.S. region. The West would have lost population if not for immigrants and births outpacing deaths.

In contrast, the South grew by 1.3 million new residents, and six of the 10 U.S. states with the biggest growth last year were in the South, led in order by Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.

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Hmmm. Just spitballing here, but perhaps the massive migration that has been all over the news might be a cause?

Unfortunately, the constant repetition by “experts” and the fact that many people want to believe them, even when they are obviously gaslighting, has led us to a situation where we are constantly having to repeat facts and we still get nowhere.

People’s opinions are sticky, and the metaphor of getting “red-pilled” has something to it. People often don’t abandon opinions slowly with new evidence, but rather persist in believing the most ridiculous things until some breaking point when they finally realize that they were simply wrong or being lied to.

This explains why you can explain things until you are blue in the face and get nowhere. It is only after the straw that breaks the camel’s back gets placed that people suddenly wake up, and that point is different for everyone.

It’s impossible to predict when that will happen, unfortunately. But I doubt it will be this particular story with many people. Instead, you will find people nodding along and repeating this utter nonsense.

Still, you would think a person who is paid to be curious would have given it a moment’s thought. “Does this ring true?” would be an obvious question, and it is obvious drivel. Anything could explain this increase in kidney stones. Changes in what kids drink, for instance. Changes in where people live (most likely), changes in food, medicines, and activity (notice that we just had a massive shift in social behavior due to COVID?).

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Climate change would be potential answer #345 out of 345 possibilities for anybody with a brain.

But, obviously, nobody in the news business cares about reality. They are paid to repeat the BS and do so happily.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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