Climate Change Diagnosis Makes Its Official Debut In Canada
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-11-10 10:12:09
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
Dr Kyle Merritt, a Canadian emergency medical specialist, has become the first doctor in the world to put on the prescription that one of his patients was suffering from the effects of "climate change". The good doctor has reasoned that his senior citizen patient's underlying condition was exacerbated by heatwaves and wildfires and thus he was a victim of climate change. He said that "If we're not looking at the underlying cause, and we're just treating the symptoms, we're just gonna keep falling further and further behind."
The doctor cannot be faulted for his diagnosis. There are medical conditions that can be cured or kept under control if external factors do not complicate matters. Climate change is one such factor that has been making existing medical conditions of many worse all over the world. In some cases, climate change has also made people victim to new diseases. Hence, it was high time someone had the good sense and the courage to say in writing that the patient was suffering from the effects of climate change.
That is one way of looking at what Dr Merritt has done. The other way is to look at regular diagnosis Indian doctors make for patients suffering from breathing troubles, asthma and skin diseases, among other afflictions. Since Indian cities are among the worst polluted in the world, doctors have regularly said that the condition of the patients had either started or had been exacerbated by the damning pollution. But they were not as succinct as to put it to climate change.
There is no doubt that 'victims' of climate change will keep on multiplying if the speed of doing something about it remains as slow as displayed in COP26. The world is taking too much time for agreeing to agree to take drastic steps to rectify the situation. Although the decision to cut emission of methane was laudable, much more needs to be done and at greater speed if Planet Earth is to remain a livable place even 20 years from now. Otherwise, the next pandemic might well be started by climate change.
Pic courtesy: www.youmatter.world
