This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Imagine you are an Olympic athlete who trained for years, enduring many injuries. Now you need to decide between a gold medal and exposure to a disease carrying mosquito in Rio.
Dr. Jonathan Patz, director of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied this Zika virus epidemic. In the five months preceding the epidemic, Brazil experienced unprecedented hot temperatures.
Both the mosquito and the viral load it carries thrive in hotter temperatures. Is human caused global warming the antecedent to this epidemic? Probably.
Is there a solution? The 39,546 members of the Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) are working with Congress to produce a bipartisan bill placing a fee on heat trapping carbon (CO2) emissions. The dividends would be returned to citizens in order to offset the increasing cost of coal burning fuel.
Meanwhile, over the next 20 years renewable energy can replace dirty energy in the U.S. and in Third World countries where global warming has its most dire effects.
As a pediatric nurse practitioner concerned for global health, I believe the efforts of CCL will create a future for generations of Olympians who will not need to decide between a gold medal and a virus.
Karen Jackson
Salt Lake City