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By MIKE MAGEE

In the wake of last week’s human tragedy in Texas, it would be easy (and appropriate) to focus on the role played by Trump’s 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 Trump labeled it on Sunday on his way to a round of golf at Bedminster, “a hundred year catastrophe.”

In reality, tragedies like this are the direct result of global warming, and last week’s suffering and loss are destined to be followed by who knows how many others here and in communities around the world.

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 it failed because US leadership opted out.

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.

Two decades ago, the warnings 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 X’d out under Trump/Musk. Who could have imagined such reckless and ultimately self-destructive moves?

And yet, here we are:

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.

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.

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

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.

5. Water scarce areas are expanding faster–creating famine, hygienic failure, migration and violence. Lack of availability of clean safe water expands the already serious burden of waterborne diseases.

6. Decline in water quantity and quality negatively compromises production of crops, livestock and fisheries–expanding the number of global citizens who suffer hunger and famine.

This list was logical and the impact predictable two decades ago. It came less than one year after Hurricane Katrina made land on August 23, 2005, in New Orleans costing $161 billion and 1,833 human lives. Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth,” was first released the following year on May 24, 2006. And his was not the only voice at the time.

Georgetown University’s Lawrence Gostin presented a policy laden argument in JAMA that ended with this prophetic statement:

“Global health, like global climate change, may soon become a matter so important to the world’s future that it demands international attention, and no state can escape the responsibility to act.”

For 105 souls (at latest count) from central Texas, time has run out. But if one is to believe the current administration and its enablers, this latest “Act of God”, waged on young Christian campers among others, has no human fingerprints on it.

Mike Magee M.D. is a Medical Historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex. (Grove/2020)

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By: matthew holt
Title: Water, Water, Everywhere . . . but Not a Drop to Drink
Sourced From: thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2025/07/09/water-water-everywhere-but-not-a-drop-to-drink/
Published Date: Wed, 09 Jul 2025 07:03:00 +0000

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