The issue of global warming that has occurred in the last few decades continues to circulate. Recent findings, if the earth’s temperature continues to increase, then several new viruses will appear to attack humans. How to?
Warmer earth conditions can cause spread dangerous diseases between animals and humans. Even, according to the researchers, it could risk causing a further pandemic.
So what does warming earth have to do with the spread of viruses through animals?
Temperatures that continue to heat up cause several types of animals to move to find new places to live that suit their conditions.
When these animals move, they carry parasites and pathogens and spread between species that have never interacted before.
The Guardian wrote that the incident would increase the risk of what is known as a zoonotic spillover. This happens when the virus passes from animals to humans and has the potential for another pandemic as big as Covid-19, quoted Wednesday (11/5/2022).
“As the world changes, the face of disease will change,” said disease ecologist at Georgetown University and co-author of the paper, Gregory Albery. “This work provides more indisputable evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker.”
He added that climate change is shaking ecosystems to their core. The incident led to an inter-species interaction that is most likely to have spread the virus.
Worse yet, according to him, any drastic measures to tackle global warming that are being done now will not be enough to stop the risk of spillover events.
“This is happening, it cannot be prevented even in the best scenario of climate change and it is necessary to take action to build health infrastructure to protect animal and human populations,” he explained.
The study said that there are 10,000 types of viruses that can infect humans and circulate in wild animal populations secretly. Cross-infection is not uncommon but as more habitat has been destroyed for agriculture and urban expansion, more people have come into contact with infected animals.
Climate change, unfortunately, is also exacerbating this problem. Namely by helping to spread disease in species that had not previously met.
The study predicts a shift in the geographic range of 3,139 mammal species due to climate change and land use by 2070. In addition, with a relatively low level of global warming, there have even been 15 thousand events of cross-species transmission of one or more viruses.
