To the Journal editor:

In the Aug. 9 issue, The Mining Journal printed an article entitled “Study connects climate hazards to 58% of infectious diseases.” This article pointed out the increase in extreme weather events like flooding, heat waves and drought related to human-caused climate change has amplified the threat to human health by infectious diseases, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax. In fact, a recent World Meteorological Organization report stated weather disasters are striking the world four to five times more often and causing seven times more damage than in the 1970s.

Additionally, a February article from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated: “The scientific evidence is unequivocal. Climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”

The report highlighted the urgent need to take meaningful action to slow the warming and increase in weather-related disasters (and thus also infectious diseases like COVID-19) caused by this climate change.

The IPCC report’s conclusions are in good agreement with what the great majority of the most qualified scientists in my field of atmospheric science have been saying for years now: humans must dramatically slow our emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide by reducing our use of dirty fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in Congress would encourage a transition from the use of fossil fuels to more clean, renewable energy sources. Another advantage of this transition will be to lower the price of gas and oil, which will drop the price we pay at the pump and negatively impact Russia and Vladimir Putin.

I encourage your readers to contact Senator Peters and Stabenow and thank them for their votes in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will help slow human-caused climate change. They can do so by visiting the website cclusa.org/takeaction and/or calling Senator Peters at 202-224-6221 and Senator Stabenow at 202-224-4822.