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Climate change is a large contributor to the increase of spreading of vector borne diseases.
These diseases live and travel through certain insects. Climate plays a great role in the insect’s growth, lifespan, and their overall populations. High temperatures and humidity allow these insects to live longer, grow faster, and grow in larger populations. I've done Research on two specific insects, mosquitoes, and house flies. There are two types of mosquitoes that contribute to two very well known diseases, which have had very large outbreaks in the past few years. One is the Aedes Aegypti (Domestic, Day-Biting Mosquito) belonging to the Dengue Fever Disease, and the female Anopheles (Marsh Mosquito) to Malaria.The temperature affects how long these mosquitoes can live, how quickly they mature, and how often they bite. Rainfall creates pools of water which is essential for mosquito breeding. Their eggs must be laid in water and their larvae matures in water too. Humidity relates to the amount of rainfall which increases the lifespan of mosquitoes and gives a larger opportunity to carry these infectious diseases from person to person. Climate change effects temperature, rainfall, and humidity, and is beginning to effect higher altitude areas, places like Ontario where we live.
I remember just a few years back my family and I were getting ready for a camping trip like we do every year; it’s what we always look forward too. My family was going to cancel the trip due to a mosquito borne virus (chikungunya), which was going around. They were even giving warnings on TV and the radio-not to be outdoors between certain periods of time and, to make sure you are using a mosquito propelling spray and or cream. These are what these outbreaks look like to us now but, for people who were just a bit more south of us they were affected more severely. Outbreaks like in 1999, where the West Nile Virus originated in Uganda and spread by mosquitoes, killed 7 people in New York. Then one of the more recent ones known as chikungunya which affected 11 Florida residents before spreading to 46 states and Washington D.C., and certainly what had affected the United States had affected us as well. "Most provinces have at least one confirmed case, with the majority being in Ontario (165) and Quebec (114). Another 100 suspected cases were still being investigated at the end of 2014, the agency said" Proof of the spread of this disease in Canada.
At the rate we're going this problem can become one of our biggest problems in Ontario or we can prevent it and solve it. Big change is possible but it requires many motivated minds to come together and fight it together. And sometimes to make great change we have to use the stick method (like my teacher Mrs. Watkins has said). One of my solutions is to tax all and every company/factory big or small that releases CO2 emissions. If they had already been taxed we should increase the tax, this way companies and factories will be losing more money than they want to lose and they will be forced to find solutions and reduce these emissions. All the money that had been taxed can be given back only if the factory or company has signed an agreement to make changes that will reduce their emissions or completely get rid of them. We can also instead use the money to make greener solutions known as the photosynthesis solution,like planting trees and plants that get rid of carbon dioxide naturally. Soil Solutions To Climate Change
