Canadian Dr Claims Woman Is Suffering From ‘Climate Change’

A November 4 article in the Canadian newspaper Victoria Times Colonist, reported, B.C. doctor clinically diagnoses patient as suffering from ‘climate change.’

On its face, this is an absurd claim. It is impossible to link any individual illness or death to climate change, a long-term trend, as opposed to an individual person’s physiological response to weather conditions.

During a heatwave in British Columbia, Dr. Kyle Merritt diagnosed an elderly patient suffering from multiple long-term medical conditions with “climate change.”

“She has diabetes. She has some heart failure. … She lives in a trailer, no air conditioning,” said Merritt of the senior patient. “All of her health problems have all been worsened. And she’s really struggling to stay hydrated.”

Merritt’s diagnosis was a political, not a medical statement and might be considered medical malpractice.

Whereas each of the patient’s conditions has identifiable medical treatments, there is no medical treatment for climate change.

One must ask, did he throw up his hands and call for restrictions on fossil fuel emissions, or did he do his job and treat the patient’s symptoms and the underlying diseases that actually caused her health crisis.

Merritt clearly doesn’t understand the difference between climate and weather.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) clearly defines it:

“Weather reflects short-term conditions of the atmosphere while climate is the average daily weather for an extended period of time at a certain location. … Weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season.”

By contrast, the classical period recognized a change in climate is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

In the case of Merritt, he is citing a record heatwave and wildfires as creating health problems for multiple patients in his hospital’s emergency room. From the article:

It was late June, and British Columbia was consumed under a heatwave that would soon go down as both the hottest and deadliest in Canadian history.

The head of the hospital’s emergency department, Merritt could see the aggravated toll the extreme heat took on patients battling multiple health problems at once, often with little money.

Like death by heat, doctors have traditionally struggled to clinically attribute mortality and severe illness to air pollution. For Merritt, this summer’s wildfire season changed all that.

When a patient came in struggling to breathe, Merritt knew the smoke — that hadn’t lifted from the region for days on end — had made a case of asthma worse.

For the first time in his 10 years as a physician, the ER doctor picked up his patient’s chart and penned in the words “climate change.”

“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,” he told Glacier Media when asked why he did it.

Anyone should have compassion for people whose underlying medical conditions are exacerbated by non-optimal heat or smoke, but the fact is that these health issues are short-term events driven by weather, not climate.

The heatwave was clearly a weather event, lasting about three days as a high-pressure dome moved from west to east over the Pacific Northwest, driven by a unique set of meteorological conditions.

Cliff Mass, Ph.D., a meteorologist at the University of Washington discussed his findings concerning the heatwave event extensively in an article, titled “Was Global Warming The Cause of the Great Northwest Heatwave? Science Says No.”

Mass found no trend consistent with “climate change” aka “global warming” and came to this conclusion:

“If global warming was producing extreme heatwaves in our region, such as the event last week, there would be a long-term trend towards more extreme high temperatures,” Mass wrote. “A single event does not reflect climate, only a trend or changes in long-term average do.”

Mass went on to examine the long-term temperature data reporting, “…there IS NO INCREASING TREND for more record high temperatures over our region during the past century. “

The wildfires were also a temporary phenomenon. NASA satellites have documented a global long-term decline in wildfires. NASA reports satellites have measured a 25-percent decrease in global lands burned since 2003.

The objective data on heatwaves and wildfires conclusively rule out Merritt’s claim that “climate change” caused health issues he witnessed.

Merritt put on his political pundit hat and conflated weather with climate. The recent heatwave and associated wildfires were short-term weather phenomenon and would only become an indicator of climate change if such occurrences saw an increase over a thirty years period, which they haven’t.

The data shows no trend.

Merritt should stick to treating patients, and leave meteorology and climatology to experts trained in those sciences.

After all, you certainly don’t see meteorologists and climatologists posing as medical professionals.

See more here: climatechangedispatch.com

Bold emphasis added

Editor’s note: I would agree with the comment in this article about malpractice. Perhaps he should have his licence to practice suspended.

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. 

Trackback from your site.

Comments (9)

  • Avatar

    Alan

    |

    I’m sure we will soon have a vaccine to deal with it.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Stephen

    |

    God forbid.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    itsme

    |

    ‘She has diabetes. She has some heart failure. … She lives in a trailer, no air conditioning’

    i call that someone living in a trailer, with a dodgy heart and diabetes.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    JaKo

    |

    Me thinks:
    The statement: “Whereas each of the patient’s conditions has identifiable medical treatments, there is no medical treatment for climate change.” is unfounded! As Alan mentioned, but didn’t realize — the vaccine is already out there and quietly working toward the ultimate cure of that condition — depopulation!
    It may sound funny, but I don’t laugh…
    Cheers, JaKo

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Kathryn

    |

    Clearly this dude wants a job at the World Economic Forum and figures if he get in early with a made up medical symptom he can turn into a diagnosis he’ll become a rock star for Klaus Schwab. Funny thing tho, since Schwab just spoke about the “New Narritive” for his Great Reduction and what his plans are on how to redesign everything from time to people. Maybe this guy may knows something on the down low or has a relative at Davos.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    John Alexander

    |

    I think that the point is missed as to what the objective of Climate Change is trying to achieve.
    They are following in the footsteps of the Covid Hoax. It will allow further lockdowns called “climate lockdowns”
    The Dr was merely showing how easy it is to create a “crisis” by attributing blame making false diagnosis.
    Environmentalists have been trying to create a “Climate Emergency” to do the same thing Lockdown and destroy the economies of Countries . It was shown how easy it is by the UN WHO.
    It has nothing to do with climate or Covid, it never has.
    This is a psychological game and it’s all about power and control.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Stephen

      |

      One could not agree more with your assessment as it is spot on. Both hoaxes lead to two things first depopulation and then world war. I consider we are already at war, the enemy being our traditional enemies + leftists, liberals, socialists, communists, greenies, marxists, call them what you will – none of them work for the benefit of our Western nations.

      A very dire world situation we find ourselves in.

      Reply

    • Avatar

      JaKo

      |

      Hi John A and Stephen,
      You’re correct “… it’s all about power and control.”; however, those are just the means to achieve their “Final Solution.” And Mass Formation, as implemented by the-powers-that-should-not-be, set up the stage where the people will have nothing (but pain and death), and will be happy.
      I doubt that war would be necessary then — as that may have undesirable consequences even for the most evil controllers.
      Cheers, JaKo

      Reply

  • free virtual slot

    |

    free virtual slot

    Canadian Dr Claims Woman Is Suffering From ‘Climate Change’ | Principia Scientific Intl.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Share via