What do humans have in common with parasites that cause malaria?

We both like warm weather.

The higher the temperature, the faster malaria parasites mature inside a female mosquito. And the warmer the weather, the more likely it is that the mosquito will survive to bite a human, and pass along this disease.

So rising global temperatures may be doing more than stranding polar bears. They also could make us sick.

In their new book, Changing Planet, Changing Health, authors Dr. Paul Epstein and Dan Ferber explore the links between global warming and Lyme disease, cholera, malaria, and other illnesses.

“This book is about how climate change harms health now, how it could devastate public health by midcentury, and how we must transform the way we power society and organize our economy to preserve a livable planet,” Epstein and Ferber write in the introduction.

Epstein is the associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School and an expert in tropical public health. He’s also examined the health impacts of climate change with agencies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Ferber, an award-winning science journalist with a PhD in biology, is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine. He’s written for publications including Reader's Digest and Popular Science.

Join us on May 12 for a conversation between Epstein, Ferber, and Reuters Health executive editor Ivan Oransky. They’ll discuss these important public health issues, and you’ll have a chance to ask questions.

From the U.S., call 1-877-299-4502 . Outside of the U.S., call 1-617-597-5442 . The passcode is 919 910 65#.