Well, this is interesting.

The thing is, though, isn't it natural to feel anxious and depressed about the state of things?

"Last year, an anxious, depressed 17-year-old boy was admitted to the psychiatric unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He was refusing to drink water. Worried about drought related to climate change, the young man was convinced that if he drank, millions of people would die. The Australian doctors wrote the case up as the first known instance of "climate change delusion."
Robert Salo, the psychiatrist who runs the inpatient unit where the boy was treated, has now seen several more patients with psychosis or anxiety disorders focused on climate change, as well as children who are having nightmares about global-warming-related natural disasters.
There is evidence that extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and hurricanes, can lead to emotional distress, which can trigger such things as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, in which the body's fear and arousal system kicks into overdrive.
After Hurricane Katrina, rates of severe mental illness - including depression, PTSD, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and a variety of phobias - doubled, from 6.1 percent to 11.3 percent, among those who lived in affected regions, a 2006 study by the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group said.
Rates of mild-to-moderate mental illness also doubled, from 9.7 percent to 19.9 percent.
"After a disaster, people can feel inadequate, like outside forces are taking control of their lives," said Joshua Miller, a professor at the Smith College School for Social Work who responds to disasters worldwide. "They can't see a positive future. They tend to lose hope or become depressed."
Severe disasters also destroy the infrastructure needed to provide mental health care, and forcibly displace people, severing social connections when people need them most, Miller said.
Climate change is expected to create about 200 million environmental refugees by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body established within the United Nations to evaluate causes and consequences of global warming." LINK

California handing out facemasks in burning areas...Fires growing, fast.

"The fires that bedevil California took another ominous turn as a blaze near Goleta more than doubled overnight to 5,400 acres and triggered more evacuations but has not destroyed any homes.

Mushrooming in size, the Goleta fire was declared a local emergency by Santa Barbara County officials. Because of its proximity to populated areas, it was also designated the top firefighting priority in a state currently plagued with a multitude of fires, some of them burning without intervention in remote areas.

Starting at 10 a.m., face masks will be distributed free to residents who are sensitive to the smoke that hangs over Goleta.

At Big Sur, more than 64,000 acres have burned, 20 structures have been destroyed and about 1,300 are threatened.

"The weather forecast this weekend is for warming and drying conditions," said Greg DeNitto, a spokesman for the multi-agency team fighting the Big Sur blaze. "That's not a good prognosis."

In a period of less than two weeks, at least 1,700 lightning-triggered fires in California have charred more than 513,000 acres. About 100 fires continue to burn. Statewide, more than 10,700 homes are threatened and 34 residences have been destroyed. A new fire Thursday burned at least 250 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest near Yucaipa." LINK

Interesting on many levels.

I don't know what to say about this, really, except how terrifying it is that "Approximately one in every 150 children in the United States has autism or a closely related disorder -- a figure higher than most recent estimates -- according to a federal survey released yesterday, the most thorough ever conducted." LINK

1 in 150 is not good odds, dude. No freaking way. I have seen enough autistic kids to know that there is no way people could pray in peace around one who is having a freakout- that, in fact, it might cause people to re-evaluate the whole freaking fairytale about a loving bearded dude who made them out of clay or whatever. Yeah. And, um, so scared of ever having a child. My understanding is that it's not something that happens until the baby is a year old or so, and then, it's like, some light is off- I can't imagine. My heart really does go out to people with autistic children- you are the unhailed saints of our day. But dude, please, if they are going to go batsh*t all over some public place, is that ok for everyone else to suffer?

Again I realize that this is not a comfortable topic- at all. For me, either. I don't know what to say, but I do fully support this priest in trying to keep this boy out of his services. Eeeeek. Thoughts on this are welcomed.

"The parents of a 13-year-old autistic boy in Bertha, Minnesota, are facing a restraining order from their parish priest because of their handicapped child.
The priest filed a court complaint against the parents for what Rev. Daniel Walz says was their boy's unruly behaviour during mass. He wants them to keep their son -- Adam Race -- away from church.

Walz claims Adam has urinated and spat in church and that his behaviour presents a danger to other parishioners. " LINK

The boy is over 6 feet tall and weighs over 225 pounds. LINK