Global warming might fuel future pandemics by dramatically increasing the risk of viruses passing from animals to humans, say warned researchers on Thursday, shedding light on another far-reaching, hidden cost of the climate crisis.
Highlights
- As the planet warms, many animals will be forced to find new places to live, taking with them the parasites and pathogens they carry, researchers wrote in the journal Nature.
- The researchers looked at how climate change might alter the geographic range of some 3,100 species of mammals between now and 2070 and how this might affect virus transmission between species.
- Even under the most optimistic climate predictions (warming below 2°C), researchers project that climate change will trigger at least 15,000 new cases of the virus crossing species for the first time by 2070.
- According to the researchers, these “spillover” events will be driven primarily by bats – which can travel great distances, are capable of carrying pathogens capable of infecting humans and are widely believed to be the primary source of Covid-19. 19 – and will be concentrated in densely populated areas of Asia and Africa.
- While it’s unclear precisely how the new viruses will affect the species involved, Dr. Gregory Albery, one of the study’s lead authors and a disease ecologist at Georgetown University, said it’s ” likely” that many of them “will fuel the urgency of new epidemics in humans”.
- With human activity causing temperatures to rise, this process may already be well underway, the researchers warned, adding that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may not be enough to prevent increased virus transmission between species.
Tangent
Viruses that pass from species to species can also have a dramatic impact on wildlife and conservation, the researchers warned. They said nearly 3,700 different animals might encounter for the first time the 13 species likely to spread the Ebola virus due to climate change. Beyond humans, the Ebola virus has had devastating effects on primate populations, including gorillas, which are threatened with extinction. The researchers said it would be useful to study other animals in future work, especially amphibians – which are already struggling with a fungal plague which wiped out at least 90 species – and marine mammals. It will also be important to understand the impact of climate change on birds and the pathogens they carry, the researchers said. Besides mammals, the viral ecosystem of birds is the best documented and it is there that we find the most viruses capable of being transmitted to humans.
important name
10,000. This is the number of viruses capable of infecting humans, according to the researchers. The vast majority of them circulate “discreetly” among wild mammals. Cases of contamination are generally rare, although they have become more frequent due to issues such as habitat destruction, the wildlife trade and industrialized agriculture, which bring animals into closer contact with humans.
Article translated from Forbes US – Author: Robert Hart
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