MS Patients and Others Against Global Warming

The Earth is getting warmer, a fact that has never more obvious than in the last few months here in Texas.

In Austin the average daily high temp for this month (August 2011) is averaging over 104F; that's not normal here. Or at least it wasn't. The reality of breaking heat and drought records on a daily basis wins us nothing, not even a plaque; it just sucks. 

Yesterday we reached the all-time record for most days over 100 F; the previous record, 69 days,  stood since 1925. We'll break that record in a couple of hours, and tomorrow we'll break the record we'll set today, and it goes on and on. 


Huge trees that made it through decades of storms and droughts are dying in record numbers, grass and ground cover are turning to dust, farmers can't grow anything but debt and ranchers are as desperate as their cattle.

Doomed Texas cow

We all hope this hellish summer is an anomaly never to be repeated, but it really doesn't seem so when you  study historic records. It's a strong warming trend, and the rate at which things warm up is increasing rapidly.    


So what does this have to do with MS patients? When you consider that about 80% of MS patients suffer from heat intolerance to some degree (no pun intended), the connection is obvious. We're more negatively affected by heat than most people are; when our body temp rises as little as a fraction  of a degree, we tend to experience an increase or worsening of our MS symptoms, particularly weakness. Simple everyday things like getting into a hot car can completely take the wind out of the sails of an MS patient for hours.

The remains of a typical Texas fish in the remains of a typical Texas lake.

As a matter of fact, at this very moment I'm recovering from too much activity in the morning heat. We have water rationing here and today's our watering day,

...so I'd been outside dealing with the sprinkler, adjusting a soaker hose, and hand-watering when it gradually got too warm. Or I got too warm. So I decided it was time to call it a morning (outside activity-wise) and tried to come back inside to cool off but found that I was accidentally locked out. After much banging on windows and doors, my usually flawless roommate finally heard me above his headphones and let me in, absolutely mortified and guilt-ridden, bless his heart. Anyway, I've been back inside with the a/c for about 30 minutes, and as I write this I'm sitting with a large ice pack on my back, fans blowing on me from three directions as I drink ice water. I've stopped sweating and feel much more comfortable now, but I'm as literally limp as I've ever been without general anesthesia. In a few minutes, I'll turn off the fans and set the a/c to a warmer temp as I get on with my day. The thing is, getting overheated like that leaves me limp for hours; I feel like taking a nap but I'm not exactly sleepy, just profoundly weak; my fingers feel weak and stupid as they stumble all over the keyboard; writing this is taking forever.


None of this is a big problem as it used to be since I retired on disability; when I was still struggling to work there was more stress as I tried to fight the effects of Texas heat and MS in general.


Anyway, it occurred to me that those of us who are especially affected by the heat might as well get together and make our voices heard in  the fight against global warming.

And yes, I totally get the irony of depending so heavily on air conditioning when it's use indirectly contributes to global warming; it sucks. I don't like needing a/c but dammit I do. I grew up without a/c but that was in the'50's when I was young and healthy and didn't have MS. And although we were in a drought then too, it wasn't this hot. It's never been this hot. But we're doing what we can to conserve energy....and water.

Our current  governor, Rick "Goodhair" Perry, who seems to be the leading GOP candidate, says that global warming is a hoax and he will have none of it. (Did that make you feel any cooler? Not me.) He said last Wednesday in New Hampshire that global warming is “a scientific theory that has not been proven.”

In his book, Fed Up! he called it “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.” (Hey, takes one to know one!)


Of course, Perry also denies evolution and other proven facts supported by not only science but the fossil record, yet ideologically inconvenient to evangelical Christians. He's cast his lot therefore cannot and will not acknowledge anything with which his Tea Party base isn't on board. And many if not most of them are of the belief that the flat  Earth is 6,000 years old. (And the Dumbening of America proceeds at breakneck speed.)

How do they manage to make themselves believe the nonsensical in the face of overwhelming evidence against it anyway? Twenty years ago I would never have thought that the mainstream of one of the major political parties in the US would be so proudly dedicated to ignorance and superstition, but there it is.

 So as the temp rises and we break yet another record (ta-dah!), Perry brushes his hair back as he waves from his Humvee limo, thinking all this fuss about global warming is all very funny.

Jerkus Texanaus

Maybe another special interest group will appear; "MS patients against Rick Perry"...