It was only a matter of time that the Cult of Climastrology would find a way to bring the opioid crisis under the banner of Hotcoldwetdry, just like the do with pretty much everything (next week there will be lots of missives about Easter and AGW)
Climate Change Could Make The Opioid Crisis Worse
America’s opioid epidemic has dominated the news media in recent years, as drug overdose deaths have escalated, decimating lives and families. And while climate change may not be top of mind in discussions about how to effectively deal with this crisis, it’s a factor that shouldn’t be ignored. Global warming spawns extreme weather, which begets destruction and despair, a dangerous scenario for people looking for a way to numb their emotional pain.
In 2016, more than 63,600 Americans died from drug overdoses, triple the 1999 rate. The overprescribing of opioid painkillers largely is driving this spike in deaths. But experts suggest that other things also are at work — including the effects of climate change.
Scientists who have been studying opioid deaths across the country believe that socioeconomic factors and natural disasters should become part of any national conversation about how to tackle America’s wave of opioid deaths. In recent years, global warming has fueled a growing number of turbulent weather events that have taken a grim toll on the human psyche.
“It is reasonable to expect that damage and destruction cause emotional and mental health problems and lead to drug abuse, both new and existing users,†said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural and regional economics at Pennsylvania State University. “There are long-lasting effects of such calamities, and they do not tend to diminish.â€
Because weather never happened before. And this is all your fault for driving a fossil fueled vehicle and refusing to grow your own vegetables and go vegan. Just because the people who push this schlock refuse to do anything in their own lives is immaterial. Or something.
The researchers used disasters identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to figure out the effects of such natural disasters as hurricanes, droughts and floods. “If climatologists’ warnings are correct, a changing climate could produce more extreme weather patterns, which could then have an effect on opioid overdoses and deaths,†Goetz said.
Could might maybe we feel. It’s all anti-science scaremongering.
