Will thawing Siberian permafrost bring ancient outbreaks back to life?
Humanity will always remember the coronavirus pandemic which has subsided now but caused agony while it was raging, killing millions and leaving a million others with symptoms of long-Covid. But are we ready to face such pandemics again?
A French virologist has raised concerns over his discovery of viruses frozen thousands of years ago, but remain alive. He said that those frozen viruses might re-emerge to threaten humanity. If it happens, it will be because of global warming due to the result of climate change.
Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie found viruses frozen for as long as 50,000 years in places such as the Siberian permafrost which remain infectious.
Bloomberg reported on Monday (Oct 9) that in an interview, at his laboratory in the Luminy campus of Aix-Marseille University, France, Claverie said: “With climate change, we are used to thinking of dangers coming from the south.” He referred to the spread of vector-borne diseases from warmer tropical regions.
He added, “Now, we realise there might be some danger coming from the north as the permafrost thaws and frees microbes, bacteria and viruses.”
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Scientists fear that the Arctic could be ice-free in summers by the 2030s amid climate change as the planet is already 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels.
Global average temperatures from January to September were 1.4 degrees Celsius higher than 1850-1900, which is almost breaching the 1.5C warming goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a report.
That threshold was the more ambitious target of the accord and is seen as essential to avoiding the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.
The January-September average global temperature was 0.05C higher than the same nine-month period in 2016, the warmest year recorded so far.
The El Nino phenomenon, which warms waters in the southern Pacific and stokes hotter weather beyond, is likely to see 2023 becoming the hottest year on record in the next three months.
Claverie’s documentation of viruses raised concerns that a rise in global temperature will release dormant pathogens, which are a lesser explored danger.
Source:
Srishti Singh Sisodia at WION News
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