More about Lyme disease
On the first page of the Concord Monitor, Sruthi Gopalakrisnan covered the substance of Robert F. Kennedy’s recent announcements on Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks. Apparently, Commissioner Kennedy emphasized the seriousness of tick-related diseases, and that “about 476,000 people” in the U.S. are diagnosed and treated annually for Lyme disease. He described new programs by his agency to control ticks, research funding to fight a particular form of the disease and rewards for people who devise solutions to the problem.
One solution he did NOT mention is to address the increasing warmth of our planet, a phenomenon caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The emissions from this burning become a sort of blanket around the planet, a blanket which holds in heat. Of course, the increasing warmth is the basis of our current climate crisis; we now lack the consistently colder winters which discouraged the growth of ticks.
This is one of many problems caused by climate change, some of them considerably more serious than Lyme disease, though that is plenty serious. I welcome any initiatives which minimize the risks of tick-related illnesses, but I believe it is crucial to address the reasons they have become so common in recent years. If we fail to do that, we face an alarmingly uphill battle against these diseases.