Climate Change Might 'Unfreeze' Age-Old Bugs That Might Lead To Next Pandemic, Warns Scientist

The impact of global warming is extremely conspicuous now, as new - or rather ages old - creatures are being discovered that were once frozen in ice in regions such as Antarctic and Arctic. Previously scientists ¡®revived¡¯ an 8-million-year-old bacterium that was frozen to show, how dangerous bacteria can be brought back to life.

Dr Dennis Carroll appears in the Netflix documentary Pandemic and he said humans ¡®should be exceedingly cautious about underestimating the potential threats' that reborn germs could pose.

Metro UK

Dr Carroll has been called the ¡®the man who saw the pandemic coming¡¯.

Many researchers believe that rising temperatures that lead to melting of ¡®permafrost¡¯ Arctic soil, could give a new life to dormant microbes. Those bacteria and viruses, frozen for thousands of years, might potentially include diseases which humanity has previously ¡®eradicated¡¯ or even ones we have never encountered.

¡°The world is faced with the very real prospect that ancient microbes which have long lay dormant beneath the frozen tundra will be given a new life with climate change and the thawing of the Arctic north. The risks that these 'reborn' microbes may pose to humanity is unknown, but Covid-19 is a striking reminder that we should be exceedingly cautious about underestimating the potential threats they may pose,¡± Dr Carroll told Metro UK.

NRDC

He added, ¡°The world would be well advised to pay close attention to the risk these ancient 'visitors' may pose to humanity.¡±

Scientists have noted that average temperatures in the Arctic have risen at a worrisome pace in the last 30 years and as the climate change worsens, they might rise faster.

Traces of novel giant viruses have been revealed in the Arctic permafrost, ¡®while Arctic ice melting has been linked to phocine distemper virus spreading from the Atlantic to Pacific in seals and sea otters¡¯, reports Metro UK.

Columbia University

Scientists from the US, Europe and the InterAcademy Partnership are worried about ¡®possible future risks of harmful infectious agents emerging from thawing permafrost and ice in the Arctic region¡¯. One of their statements read, ¡®The Arctic region has not hitherto been highly visible in maps of global hotspots for infectious disease risk. However, a case can now be made that the Arctic is increasingly relevant because of its rapid pace of warming and development ¨C while it is frozen now it won¡¯t necessarily be in the future¡¯.

What Dr Carroll and other scientists are saying is that if global warming continues at this pace, humans might risk of an outbreak worse than coronavirus pandemic.