Kacey Ernst is making a few changes to the talk she will deliver Feb. 22 on “Climate Change and Human Health: Impacts and Pathways to Resilience.”
The talk is part of the 2016 UA College of Science series “Earth Transformed,” which examines the human and ecological impacts of a changing climate.
Ernst, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UA College of Public Health, said the declaration of a global emergency by the World Health Organization made it important to include the Zika virus in her lecture.
Ernst said she’s seen claims that climate change is driving the spread of the virus, though “I don’t think there is enough evidence to suggest that’s the case.”
Ernst said she plans to talk about “some of the more certain health impacts of climate change,” such as an increase in extreme heat events. “That’s not a far leap,” she said.
But she will also talk about how rising temperatures could affect the northward spread of mosquito-born diseases such as Zika and her research specialty, the related dengue fever.
Ernst is the fourth of six speakers in the “Earth Transformed” series, held on Mondays at Centennial Hall on the UA campus.
This Monday’s talk, by Russell Monson, a UA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is titled: “Ecosystem Resilience: Navigating Our Tenuous Connection to Nature.”
More information about the free talks is at uascience.org
