Jessie Diggins is a leader in the race to save our planet

One of the biggest threats to the existence of human life on this planet is the recent trend of global warming, or the increase in Earth's average temperature. According to the Carbon Brief website, human activity has caused virtually all of the long-term global warming that has been observed since 1850.

If you were to ask me who I thought was the foremost leader in the race to save our planet, you might think I would respond by naming a prominent American politician who views global warming as a serious problem, such as legendary U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), or a leader of a foreign country who views global warming as a serious problem, such as French President Emmanuel Macron. Actually, it's American cross-country skier and Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins, who, while at the U.S. Capitol last week, gave an example of how her sport is threatened by global warming:

Jessie Diggins traveled from her home in Afton, Minn., to La Clusaz, France, in December 2016 to compete in a world-class cross-country ski race. Diggins, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist, could not believe what she saw when she arrived.

Townspeople had to hack chunks of ice from a frozen lake and cover them with man-made snow in order to create a course.

The result, Diggins told congressional staffers listening to a presentation on climate change, was “grass with a ribbon of snow.”

I believe that someone like Diggins, due to her own experiences as an athlete in a sport contested on snow, would be more likely to be taken seriously by people when it comes to talking about the global warming problem that faces our planet than someone who is a politician or a scientist, since people can relate more easily to an athlete talking about how her sport is threatened by global warming than a scientist summarizing a scientific study on global warming or a politician giving a speech on global warming.