Another day, another scary story, all because you, yes you, refuse to handwash your clothes and let them line dry in the middle of winter. And turn your evil heating down to 58. And take a hot shower. And haven’t given up meat. And took a shower longer than 2 minutes. And used more than 2 sheets of TP. And and and
Ways Climate Change Can Harm Your Eyes
In order to treat routine but sometimes impairing degenerative eye conditions that come with age, many of us even seek out treatments from a Laser Eye Surgeon or other eye specialist. But what if our eye health is being negatively affected by something far bigger and of far more global concern and consequence that most of us struggle to understand? (snip)
As Greenhouse gases and pollutants enter the earth’s atmosphere and hang thickly, they cause damage to the Ozone layer; that part of our planet’s precious atmosphere that works to filter potentially damaging UV rays from the sun. If human beings are exposed to excessive amounts of this UV radiation, over an extended period, and without any preventative approaches to mitigate the effects of that exposure, we may find ourselves suffering not only from sunburn, but potentially poor eye health.
Some studies show that as much as five percent of an adults eye problems could be directly attributed to the impacts felt as a result of the depletion of the Ozone Layer and our growing exposure to damaging UV radiation. Symptoms that an adult might include experience and report to their optician include but are not limited to the formation of cataracts, macular degeneration, redness and itchiness, and inflammation of delicate parts of the eye.
And there you have it. You drove your fossil fueled vehicle to work, hence, you’ve destroyed the ozone layer and damaged other people’s eyes. You bastards!
Here’s something funny, though
Would it surprise you to learn that our eyes are not only at risk from things you’d expect are related to climate change, like Ozone depletion and Greenhouse gases, but also some of the measures we take to decrease Greenhouse gases and our carbon footprint?
This is evident, given that as we seek to mitigate the effects of climate change, we are increasingly turning to solutions such as the use of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL)in our homes and places of work and in other environments that we frequent such as gyms, shopping centres and libraries. Using solutions like CFLs absolutely helps us to save on electricity costs and potentially reduces our impact on the environment, but many people don’t ever stop to consider that some of the CFLs and fluorescent lights can also emit damaging UV radiation.
Oops.
