Obama: Climate change spreading insect-borne diseases

President Obama warned that rising temperatures due to climate change is prompting the spread of certain insect-borne diseases.

“Certain diseases that traditionally have been localized in warmer climates are going to start creeping up into more temperate climates,” Obama said during an interview with NBC News.  “That’s just adaptation by insects and other critters that spread disease.”

{mosads}He added that higher temperatures also raise the potential for heatstroke and trigger more wildfires and also extend the allergy season.

Obama sat down with NBC, ABC and CNN to warn of the dangers of climate change and to promote awareness on the issue that he’s made a major priority for his White House. 

This week, he announced a global warming report that focuses on how people can take action to reduce health risks associated with a changing climate. He’s also negotiated a deal with China to cut greenhouse gases and enacted a number of Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Obama encouraged a societal approach to climate change, involving public health officials, doctors and community leaders in developing strategies to fight climate change. He argued that the issue affects all Americans, so there needs to be a large buy-in.  

“There are a whole host of public health impacts that are going to hit home, so we’ve got to do better in protecting vulnerable Americans,” Obama told CNN. “Ultimately, though, all of our families are going to be vulnerable. You can’t cordon yourself off from air or climate.”

His strategy hasn’t been welcomed by all of Congress, including some Republican lawmakers who don’t feel that climate change presents as pressing a risk as the president suggests.

Obama added during his interview that aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that his push to address climate change has been partly influenced by a frightening moment when his daughter Malia had an asthma attack as a 4-year-old.

“What I can relate to is the fear a parent has when your 4-year-old daughter comes up to you and says, ‘Daddy, I’m having trouble breathing.’ The fright you feel is terrible,” the president told ABC. 

“And if we can make sure that our responses to the environment are reducing those incidents, that’s something that I think every parent would wish for.”