Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden, speculate that an increase in global average temperature of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit could cause heat waves that would boost hospitalizations for hyponatremia (insufficient amount of salt in the bloodstream to sustain proper body electrical function) by 6.3%, and warming of 3.6 degrees F would boost hospitalizations by 13.9%.

“Without adaptive measures, this suggests that over the next decades rising global temperatures alone will increase the burden of hyponatremia on health care systems,” the researchers said.

But there are a few problems with this.

First, greenhouse gas-induced warming happens, even according to the IPCC, mainly toward the poles, mainly in the winter, and mainly at night. I.e., it raises very low temperatures much more than it raises high temperatures. Consistent with that, there has been no increase in the number of high temperature record days during the period of allegedly manmade warming (roughly since 1960). In the United States, the record number of annual severe heat days per year was in the 1930s, not recently.

Second, cold snaps kill, on average, 20 times as many people as heat waves. And since greenhouse gas-induced warming raises low temperatures more than high temperatures, the result will be a greater reduction in cold snaps than increase in heat waves. Ipso facto, fewer temperature-related deaths.

Third, as geologist William D. Balgord, Ph.D. (Geochemistry), President, Environmental & Resources Technology, Inc., Middleton, WI, and contributing writer for the Cornwall Alliance, points out, the solution to the speculative problem is cheap and universally available: using a little more salt.

“This is the biggest manufactured fire alarm I have read in a long, long time,” Balgord wrote to Newsmax editors. “The answer to the invented problem is sitting right there on the family dinner table, even If assuming there is a problem to begin with. It is called a salt shaker. But most humans on earth today have too much sodium intake in their diet.”

Photo by Lachlan on Unsplash.