Rachel Weber: Climate change hastens Zika

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a top target for mosquitoes, looking like I had the chicken pox all summer. Now I wonder what the spread of Zika will mean for my health and planning. And as an environmental activist, I know that more bites aren’t just a sign of a public health crisis but also of a warming planet.

A stalemate on funding for Zika research and prevention is bad news for public health (“Can newly rested Congress get it together to fight Zika?” Sept. 4 news article) and worse news considering the deadly inaction on climate change in North Carolina.

Rising temperatures and vector-borne diseases are linked: Mosquitoes love the exact climate that global warming is leading to – warmer temperatures and heavy rains.

City and state officials need to take strong, decisive action, not only to respond to health threats like Zika but also to stave off the worst effects of climate change. We need to implement a plan to reduce carbon emissions to net zero levels by 2050, and that means transitioning to 100 percent clean, renewable energy.

I’d take solar panels in the summer over mosquitoes any day. Who wouldn’t?

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Rachel Weber: Climate change hastens Zika."