Barack Obama joined CBS News’ Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jonathan LaPook on Tuesday, where he claimed to have witnessed the public health hazards of global warming firsthand. According to Obama, “Malia – early on, when she was young – had asthma. And we had to go to the emergency room once. We had good health insurance, and we had the capacity to really knock it out early, so that over time, she was able to not have to carry an inhaler around.” That experience, he asserts, personally shaped his view of the environment. The Left admits natural disasters cannot individually be tied to global warming, but Obama has no trouble linking it to a single case of asthma. Can we be any more certain climate change raises the number of asthma attacks any more than we can conclude hydrologic fracturing causes earthquakes? Let’s just say the science isn’t settled. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “Higher pollen concentrations and longer pollen seasons can increase allergic sensitizations and asthma episodes and diminish productive work and school days.” But in 2010, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences published a report titled “A Human Health Perspective On Climate Change,” in which the authors write, “Despite strong evidence of associations between a wide range of environmental variables impacted by climate and respiratory disease, the direct impacts of climate change on asthma, respiratory allergies, and airway diseases need further study to evaluate the fraction of respiratory disease risk that can be attributed to climate change and potentially mitigated or avoided.” But even if the science community universally agreed with Obama, that doesn’t prove it’s true. And it’s just as likely there’s another explanation. As meteorologist Dr. Ryan Maue tweeted, “Obama’s smoking likely made his daughter’s asthma attack personal. That’s why my father quit.” More…

Addendum: JunkScience.com notes, “Obama claimed … that global warming was to blame for a one-time asthma attack that happened to his daughter Malia when she was in pre-school. Except that, according to Michelle Obama, the attack occurred while they were at the circus – a venue teaming with peanuts. And wouldn’t you know it, Malia has a peanut allergy. Blame global warming? That’s nuts!”