Health Dangers of Climate Change

When I wrote about climate change in my first book, Beyond Blind Faith, I talked about the danger climate change poses through the spread of diseases, which is one of the “birth pangs” Jesus talked about in Luke 21:10-11.[1] But climate change also poses health threats resulting from excessive heat, such as what many parts of the American South and Southwest have been experiencing this summer.[2]

One such threat is that of heatstroke, a life-threatening condition that happens when the body’s core temperature exceeds 104° F and normal cooling functions such as sweating shut down, preventing the body from cooling itself. The threat of heatstroke is especially dangerous for people who normally work outside, such as delivery drivers,[3] construction workers, and farm workers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that almost forty workers die from heat each year, a statistic that is almost certainly too low because it fails to include deaths due to causes such as cardiac arrest and respiratory failure which may be heat-related.[4] In addition, heat stress and dehydration can impair decision-making and risk aversion, which in turn can result in injury and death.

A long-term effect of working in high heat over many years is Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-traditional Origin, also known as Mesoamerican Nephropathy. This disease causes progressive kidney damage, eventually resulting in kidney failure. The disease was first diagnosed in El Salvador among its sugarcane workers, but has now been observed in many other locations, including the United States. As we would expect, incidents of the disease are increasing as the planet continues to get hotter.

These problems will only get worse as climate change makes excessive summer heat more frequent and more severe. Our world already averages 2.7° F hotter than in pre-industrial times, and the current forecast is for average world temperatures to be almost 5° F warmer by 2200.

If you want to read more about climate change, and how it may be fulfilling biblical prophecy, check out footnote 1, below.

[1] You can read the entire chapter, entitled “Apocalypse Soon,” on this website, for free, by clicking here: https://dondavidson.net/apocalypse-soon/. Or you can follow the link, above, to “Don’s Books,” where you can find links to a description of Beyond Blind Faith and a list of the book’s contents, including “Apocalypse Soon.”

[2] This blog entry is based in part on the article, “The Boiling Point,” by Aryn Baker, in the August 14, 2023 issue of Time Magazine, and on an article by Ms. Baker on Time.com entitled “Is Chronic Kidney Disease the Black Lung of Climate Change?”

[3] According to UPS company records submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), at least a dozen UPS drivers are hospitalized each year for heat-related causes.

[4] And yet the Texas legislature this year outlawed locally mandated water breaks for construction workers. See https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/texas-heat-wave-water-break-construction-workers/.