Ask your Mechanic About that Melanoma

A typical Public Radio piece on climate change etc notes:

When ... arrives for a checkup with his lung specialist, he's worried about how his body will cope with the heat and humidity of a Boston summer. "I lived in Florida for 14 years and I moved back because the humidity was just too much," ... tells pulmonologist ..., as he settles into an exam room chair at a ...HealthCare clinic. ..., who is 57, has COPD, a progressive lung disease that can be exacerbated by heat and humidity. Even inside a comfortable, climate-controlled room, his oxygen levels worry .... ... reluctantly agrees to try using portable oxygen. He's resigned to wearing the clear plastic tubes looped over his ears and inserted in his nostrils. He assures ...he has an air conditioner and will stay inside on really hot days. The doctor and patient agree that ...should take his walks in the evenings to be sure that he gets enough exercise without overheating. Then ... turns to ... with a question she didn't encounter in medical school: "Can I ask you: Last summer, why was it so hot?" ..., who studies air pollution, is ready.

It continues:

Yes,"... nods, "because of global warming, the plants are flowering earlier in the spring. After hot summers, the trees are releasing more pollen the following season. And the ragweed — it's extending longer into the fall."

 Now I respect my medical colleagues but medicine is not climatology. In fact the two are so far apart one cannot imagine. Now for the plant side, this is a bit uncertain. I keep records for New Jersey and New Hampshire for 35 years with a set of sentinel plants. So as an empiricist I must deal with the facts, what I see and measure. Not really clear and this year my sentinel plants bloomed two week later!

Now as to giving climate advice to patients, getting patients to understand what one tells them about their health is difficult enough but unqualified anecdotes on top of this is just nonsense in my opinion.

So my advice is stick with what you know, empirically! Beware of that rational stuff, except in pure math.