Yet Another Thing Caused by Global Warming

Before we unveil the next major threat from global warming, let's first look at what a Congressman has been telling impressionable young minds:

The excitable Democratic Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts told high school students last week that climate change not only caused Hurricane Katrina, but also led to the "Blackhawk Down" battle between American forces and Somali rebels back in 1993.

Cybercast News reports that Markey said, "The planet is running a fever... the worst consequences affect the planet — not only New Orleans."

He claimed that "climate change... resulted in a drought which led to famine. That famine translated to international aid we sent in to Somalia, which then led to the U.S. having to send forces to separate all the groups that were fighting over the aid, which led to Blackhawk Down."

Many scientists say it is impossible to make a direct link between global warming and Hurricane Katrina. And the desperate famine in Somalia, according to the U.N., was the result of years of war and bad governance, and population growth.

Malarky. That's almost child abuse.

And now, something else you must worry about thanks to global warming:

More Americans are likely to suffer from kidney stones in the coming years as a result of global warming, according to researchers at the University of Texas.
Kidney stones, which are formed from dissolved minerals in the urine and can be extremely painful, are often caused by caused by dehydration, either by not drinking enough liquid or losing too much due to high heat conditions.

If global warming trends continue as projected by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, the United States can expect as much as a 30 percent growth in kidney stone disease in some of its driest areas, said the findings published in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

You ought to read some of the comments on that article. The folks there aren't buying the story either. However, as one wag points out, for every new kidney stone patient we'll have several less frostbite patients. Should be a fair trade.