The Kidney Stone-Climate Bill Connection

Advocates of a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States have touted its benefits like job creation and energy independence. They've made their let's save-the-environment plea.

What about the kidney stones argument? Is there anything quite as powerful as the threat of an uncomfortable medical condition to sway public opinion?

Incidents of kidney stones -- along with a host of other, more serious ailments -- may increase as global temperatures rise, researchers at Harvard Medical School said recently at a Capitol Hill briefing in Washington D.C. Representatives from major U.S. medical associations including the American Medical Association joined the researchers in their call for action on a climate bill. The AMA also sent a letter to President Obama, citing "significant public health impacts" of climate change, Bloomberg reported.

Malaria, Lyme disease, depression and cases of chronic respiratory diseases also will rise with global warming, the researchers said. Their point was simple: climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions is a threat to public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency has had plenty to say on the subject, especially in the wake of its U.S. Supreme Court-appointed authority that it can and should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. EPA officials said they are already working on climate policies aimed at improving public health, as Environment & Energy reported (subscription service).

The EPA may be busy readying itself for some greenhouse gas action, but what about the public? The sudden and loud cry from large numbers of constituents to their senators and representatives in Congress has always been a surefire way to get things done inside the beltway.

Of course, folks need to get fired up and at the very least, they need to believe that global temps are rising. The percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising fell by 14 percent from the previous year, according to a Pew Research Center poll last month. And right now the apathy surrounding climate change is thicker than the massive bill promising to combat it.