Linda Marsa

Linda Marsa

Linda Marsa Biography & Books

Speaker Biography:

Linda Marsa is an award-winning investigative journalist and a contributing editor at Discover who has covered medicine, science, health and the environment for more than two decades. She is a former Los Angeles Times reporter and author of FEVERED: Why a Hotter Planet Will Harm Our Health and How We Can Save Ourselves (Rodale, 2013), which the New York Times called “gripping to read.” FEVERED won an honorable mention as best general nonfiction book of the year from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She has also written for U.S. News & World Report, Aeon, Popular Science, The Daily Beast and Pacific Standard, among numerous others.

A popular speaker, Linda has lectured widely on climate change at major universities, leading environmental organizations, public health institutes and for general audiences, speaking at venues like George Washington University, Emory University, UC Irvine, University of Colorado and the Public Health Institute in Oakland. She has also been an instructor at The Writer’s Program at UCLA Extension for more than two decades and was named Teacher of the Year in 1999.

Contact:

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Reviews:

FEVERED makes its case with plenty of hard evidence. . . gripping to read. . . chapters unfold like medical detective stories. . .

-The New York Times

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...a well-written and persuasive wake-up call for serious action to be taken against the consequences of global warming.

-Kirkus Reviews

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Sobering, informative, and essential reading.

-Booklist

Linda Marsa’s FEVERED is a brilliant look at where we’re headed with climate change, and how we might lessen the damage, with changes that are well within the bounds of the possible. …she makes the case that our fate is not sealed. We can make a change, if we act today.

-Ed Begley, Jr.

By turns disturbing and inspiring, Marsa tells two compelling stories in FEVERED She shows us that climate disruption has already begun to damage our health. She also makes clear that it's not too late to reshape our future by adopting clean energy and embracing smart conservation practices that are already bearing fruit in unlikely places.

-Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club

Marsa’s engaging style and her liking for meticulous research help build a well-written, compelling narrative.

-Lisa Palmer, The Yale Forum on Climate Change

Books:

  • FEVERED: Why a Hotter Planet Will Harm Our Health and How We Can Save Ourselves (Rodale)

Awards:

2014 Best Books of the Year: FEVERED was awarded an honorable mention in the nonfiction books category by The American Society of Journalists and Authors

Speaking Topics:

  • Through her extensive career as a medical and science journalist, and through the extensive research conducted for Fevered, Linda can speak knowledgeably about a wide range of topics related to a changing climate, how it will affect our health, and what civic leaders, city and regional planners, the business community and public health officials are doing to prepare for a hotter future.
  • Climate Change and its Violent Aftermath: There are mass de-stabilizing effects of climate change, leading to more violence, wars, and mass migrations, uprooting millions.
  • Infectious Diseases: We’ll see a spread of infectious diseases as mosquitoes and other disease vectors move to newly warm habitats, carrying with them such exotic ills as malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya.
  • Bad Air: How pollution will get worse as the planet heats up, creating CO2 domes over cities, and its effects on health; increasingly foul air from a warming climate is partly to blame for the skyrocketing rates of asthma and allergies.
  • The Aftermath of Natural Disasters: Higher temperatures will cause more natural disasters like Katrina and Sandy—hurricanes, floods, droughts and super storms—that will strain the health care system beyond the breaking point, resulting in higher mortality rates, the spread of diseases, a worsening of chronic illnesses, and serious psychological reactions.
  • Environmental Justice: Climate change is an environmental justice issue because it is the poor and disenfranchised who feel its effects first. We saw that with Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina and the lethal heat waves that gripped Chicago, Europe and Russia, claiming thousands of lives.
  • Model Cities/Countries: Many cities in the U.S. are becoming greener, healthier and wealthier places by implementing adaptation programs and embracing smart conservation strategies that will smooth the transition to a sustainable future.
  • Linda Marsa can customize a program for your school, organization, or book club.

Speaking History:

  • A popular speaker, Linda Marsa has lectured widely on climate change at major universities, leading environmental organizations, public health institutes and for general audiences, speaking at venues such as:
  • George Washington University
  • Emory University
  • UC Irvine
  • University of Colorado
  • Public Health Institute in Oakland, CA