Hello dear readers, I hope you’re all wearing your sunglasses because today we’re exploring the latest outrageous claim in the ever-expanding climate change blame game: It’s making us blind!
Our friends up in the Great White North, specifically some researchers from the University of Toronto, have been poring over data from 1.7 million seniors across the US, and have come to the revolutionary conclusion that living in warmer regions is linked with higher chances of severe vision impairment.
Now, before we all start packing our bags and moving to Alaska, let’s take a moment to appreciate the absurdity of this new revelation.
To put it simply, the scientists found that folks residing in states with average temperatures above 60F, think Florida, Texas, and Georgia, are up to 50 percent more likely to suffer serious vision problems than those huddled in their igloos in the frigid regions of New York and Maine.
If you live in the slightly chillier climates of Virginia, Kentucky, and California, with temperatures between 55 and 59.99F, you can still expect a 24% uptick in eye problems. And if you reside in places that hit the Goldilocks zone of 50 to 54.99F, well, you’re still 14 percent more likely to have vision problems.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Is it the tropical drinks causing these problems? Perhaps it’s the excess of beach volleyball causing sand-in-eye incidents? Or maybe it’s the squinting at the sun glinting off the ocean waves?
But no! According to our trusty scientists, this may be due to…wait for it… climate change! Because, as we all know, there’s nothing that climate change can’t be blamed for.
The researchers, with their scholarly caution, admit that their study is “observational” and therefore, cannot definitively prove that warmer temperatures are leading to vision problems. They assure us that further research is needed (of course it is, we need more grant money!).
Despite this glaring caveat, they still go on to suggest a plethora of theories on how warmer weather might be upping the risk of vision issues. Increased exposure to ultraviolet light, higher chances of catching an eye-infecting fungus, and more pollutants in the air due to the heat are among the culprits on their list.
With each passing day, it seems climate change is gifted with a new superpower. And if this trend continues, I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon find out that climate change is also responsible for lost car keys and mismatched socks.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking care of our planet, but these increasingly wild climate change accusations continue to strain credulity far past the breaking point. Maybe it’s time to take a step back, don our sunglasses, and view these findings with a bit of skepticism, wouldn’t you agree?
I can’t wait for the next enlightening revelation. In the meantime, stay cool or risk becoming blind, I guess?
HT/Cam_S, Lee
So what’s the average age in Florida? Older people might have sight problems, you say? And Georgia has a rather extensive diabetes problem with increases in glaucoma and eye problems, you say? But it’s definitively ‘climate change’ is it? Right.
Ultra violet is one Sun related thing, but they claim CO2 is the driver of temperatures. Obviously – if as they say it has nothing to do with the Sun – the paper is abject nonsense
I started to laugh but then I had to cry over the gross stupidity that abounds today.
Can braille be added to this forum just in case mass blindness hits us all?
This is a Canadian study? Has anybody considered they make this shit up to keep their population from moving somewhere warmer and with more sunshine?
The researchers have been blinded to the real causes of global warming.
Climate change causes……climate change, and every other bad thing, ever. No discussion or dissent is warranted or allowed. The science is settled.
“”We examined the sources of variance in the prevalence of cataract and its different types, and identified age as a responsible factor in the prevalence of any cataract, cortical cataract, nuclear cataract, and PSC of cataract, WHO region in the prevalence of any cataract, and study year in the prevalence of nuclear cataract.””
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-0806-3
These authors didn’t think of climate change – fools.
Why is this news?
Some 38 years ago, “anomalous” springtime reductions in the concentration of ozone in the stratosphere over the South Pole were noted.
(ref: https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/publication/the-ozone-layer/ )
Subsequently, seasonal reductions in ozone concentrations in the stratosphere over the North Pole were discovered.
(ref: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220707141840.htm#)
In turn, shortly thereafter the whole world was sent into a tizzy over claims that these worsening “ozone holes” would increase ground level UV intensity over most of the planet, directly leading to “blindness” in insects such as honeybees and, at least, a striking increase of cataracts and skin cancer in humans.
Of course, decreasing ozone concentrations over the Earth’s poles MUST be the result of “climate change” (hah!). . . even if via human releases of CFC’s and halons*.
*Yeah, there’s scientific debate about the ozone reduction over the North Pole being due to mankind’s release of ozone depleting gases or being more directly due to a “polar vortex” weather pattern. As always, the science on this is far from being settled.
Now who didn’t see that coming?
Global Warming will also lead to more skin cancer. If we look at skin cancer rates, we find that the warmer the location in the US, the more skin cancer there is. This is obviously due to the higher temperatures in Florida (for instance) compared to Minnesota. So the warmer it gets, the more skin cancer there will be.
Obvious, really, when you think about it. However, there is good news too. The warmer it gets, the less vitamin D deficiency there will be….
You really do quite have to admire climate science though, and this little nugget.
It’s such a perfectly self fulfilling prophecy in that all those things, blindness. lost keys, cancer, wanking UV Ozone and other holes are all caused by overconsumption of sugar.
But then, CliSci to the rescue, ever greater consumption of sugar (plant derived sustenance and there’s nothing much else in them) is to be The Saviour for us all from the horrors of Climate Change.
While sugar created the horror in the first place.
It’s soooo fantastically circular and watertight – there is no escape.
You now understand what potential Stepford Wives went through and how they felt..
Well I’ve always thought that when it comes to climate scientists and politicians, it’s the blind leading the blind and now I know why!
Does that mean that the climate change is actually caused by can’t C O 2?
Effects of Solar Radiation on the Eyes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709587/
Conclusions
There are a variety of eye conditions that have been connected to UVR exposure. Short-term exposure to UVR has been shown to cause photokeratitis and photo retinitis. In contrast, long-term exposure to UVR has been shown to cause CDK, cataracts, pterygium, SCC of the cornea and conjunctiva, and cancers of the eyelids. The evidence supporting these claims is quite compelling. Conditions such as pinguecula, age-related macular degeneration, and melanoma of the eyeball are examples of eye diseases that may or may not have a link to UVR radiation. Because the destructive effects of UV radiation are cumulative, it is important to protect the eyes of young persons, who are more sensitive to the effects of ultraviolet light. This is because young individuals are more likely to be exposed to ultraviolet light. Despite appearances to the contrary, the amount of UV radiation that reaches the eyes does not decrease when there is cloudy weather present. The eyes are exposed to ultraviolet radiation around the clock every day of the year. Protecting oneself from the Sun may be accomplished in various ways, including using proper clothing, hats, glasses, or contact lenses that filter UV radiation.
++++++++++++++++
.Or moving north to Canada where the power of the sun is diminished!
Solar Energy and Latitude
https://k12.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Science_and_Technology/Earth_Science/10%3A_Atmospheric_Processes/10.15%3A_Solar_Energy_and_Latitude
I have wondered if the obsessive increase in wearing sunglasses and staying out of the sun when at its peak is related the increase in mood disorders. Sure very small diurnal shifts in light levels can drive the circadian rhythm, but exposure to bright light probably has significant biological effects.
Just last week my eye doctor recommended lowering my thermostat instead of getting glasses. Saved some money but I keep running stop signs.
Keep in mind this “study” is from Toronto which is geographically part of Canada but reflects the views of normal Canadians the same way Washington DC reflects the views of normal Americans. Please don’t blame the rest of us for Toronto.
Climate change causes self-professed climate scientists to become totally deranged.
No cure to be found in the peer-reviewed literature.
Imagine that: states that get more intense sun light and UV have more vision problems! I’m shocked. Shocked! Also wear your sunscreen and sunglasses or pay the price lol
The “canary in the coal mine” for this new CAGW situation will be the polar bears going blind the soonest of all, i.e. “arctic warming up 2x faster than everywhere else” or whatever the current talking point is. Assuming Greenpeace is genuinely into recycling, they simply need to dust off their old 1992-era scare tactic statement about polar bears going blind from ozone depletion and change a few words.
Michael Shellenberger should add this to his “Woke Religion- a Taxonomy” chart.
https://boghossian.substack.com/p/woke-religion-a-taxonomy
Warming doesn’t necessarily mean sunnier. It is slightly warmer here in Woke-achusetts but also with more rain- so more clouds. All I know is my garden, lawn, trees and shrubs never were so happy.
What morons … they look at blindness data (???) as a function of climate based upon latitude – a static condition – and blame higher incidences of vision problems on “climate change” which is by definition not a static condition.
I can easily posit an alternative explanation for more vision problems down south … age. People up north migrate to the sun belt to retire because the bitter winters up north are literally killing them (along with the high taxes that kill your retirement nest eggs).
And it is a fact that seniors experience much higher frequencies of vision ailments, particularly cataracts, glaucoma, and illnesses resulting from exposure to both UV and environmental contaminants, which exposures correlate to total lifetime exposure. The longer you live, the greater the cumulative exposure, the greater the effect.
That’s why here in south Florida where I live, there are booming industries involved in treating age-related ailments, from cataracts to hip replacements to plastic surgery on wrinkles and sags. Ditto in other southern tier states like the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas, and Arizona.
These knuckleheads persist in ignoring the fact that correlation is not causation.
Could it relate to that old adage about non so blind as those who refuse to see? Mind controlled into group think means good vision is an impediment?
Climate Change® is all things to all people at all times, but all bad.
This continuous “climate change” propaganda is making gullible, uneducated people blind to reality.
There are a lot of gullible uneducated people..
That is the real problem