Climate crisis may fuel future pandemics

本帖於 2022-04-28 09:58:30 時間, 由版主 移花接木 編輯

有時候精神會稍微恍惚一下, 對一些習以為常的小事感到有點奇怪, 發現我可以不用想就自然地拚出pandemic, 以前嗎, 肯定是認識, 仔細按照讀音可以拚個8,9不離十.  中文譯文在我的blog:“潛在毀滅性”:氣候危機可能助長未來的Pandemics

‘Potentially devastating’: Climate crisis may fuel future pandemics

‘Zoonotic spillovers’ expected to rise with at least 15,000 instances of viruses leaping between species over next 50 years

Bats will account for the majority of this disease spread because of their ability to travel large distances. Photograph: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters

There will be at least 15,000 instances of viruses leaping between species over the next 50 years, with the climate crisis helping fuel a “potentially devastating” spread of disease that will imperil animals and people and risk further pandemics, researchers have warned.

As the planet heats up, many animal species will be forced to move into new areas to find suitable conditions. They will bring their parasites and pathogens with them, causing them to spread between species that haven’t interacted before. This will heighten the risk of what is called “zoonotic spillover”, where viruses transfer from animals to people, potentially triggering another pandemic of the magnitude of Covid-19.

“As the world changes, the face of disease will change too,” said Gregory Albery, an expert in disease ecology at Georgetown University and co-author of the paper, published in Nature. “This work provides more incontrovertible evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker.

“We have demonstrated a novel and potentially devastating mechanism for disease emergence that could threaten the health of animals in the future and will likely have ramifications for us, too.”

Albery said that climate change is “shaking ecosystems to their core” and causing interactions between species that are already likely to be spreading viruses. He said that even drastic action to address global heating now won’t be enough to halt the risk of spillover events.

“This is happing, it’s not preventable even in the best case climate change scenarios and we need to put measures in place to build health infrastructure to protect animal and human populations,” he said.

The research paper states that at least 10,000 types of virus capable of infecting humans are circulating “silently” in wild animal populations. Until relatively recently, such crossover infections were unusual but as more habitat has been destroyed for agriculture and urban expansion, more people have come into contact with infected animals.

Climate change is exacerbating this problem by helping circulate disease between species that previously did not encounter each other. The study forecast the geographic range shifts of 3,139 mammal species due to climatic and land use changes until 2070 and found that even under a relatively low level of global heating there will be at least 15,000 cross-species transmission events of one or more viruses during this time.

Bats will account for the majority of this disease spread because of their ability to travel large distances. An infected bat in Wuhan in China is a suspected cause of the start of the Covid pandemic and previous research has estimated there are about 3,200 strains of coronaviruses already moving among bat populations.

The risk of climate-driven disease is not a future one, the new research warns. “Surprisingly, we find that this ecological transition may already be under way, and holding warming under 2C within the century will not reduce future viral sharing,” the paper states.

Much of the disease risk is set to center upon high-elevation areas in Africa and Asia, although a lack of monitoring will make it difficult to track the progress of certain viruses. “There is this monumental and mostly unobserved change happening within ecosystems,” said Colin Carlson, another co-author of the research.

“We aren’t keeping an eye on them and it makes pandemic risk everyone’s problem. Climate change is creating innumerable hotspots for zoonotic risk right in our backyard. We have to build health systems that are ready for that.”

Experts not involved in the research said the study highlighted the urgent need to improve processes designed to prevent future pandemics, as well as to phase out the use of the fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis.

“The findings underscore that we must, absolutely must, prevent pathogen spillover,” said Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the center for climate, health, and the global environment at Harvard University.

“Vaccines, drugs and tests are essential but without major investments in primary pandemic prevention, namely habitat conservation, strictly regulating wildlife trade, and improved livestock biosecurity, as examples, we will find ourselves in a world where only the rich are able to endure ever more likely infectious disease outbreaks.”

Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that works on pandemic prevention, said that while human interference in landscapes has been understood as a disease risk for a while, the new research represents a “critical step forward” in the understanding of how climate change will fuel the spread of viruses.

“What’s even more concerning is that we may already be in this process – something I didn’t expect and a real wake-up call for public health,” he said. “In fact, if you think about the likely impacts of climate change, if pandemic diseases are one of them, we’re talking trillions of dollars of potential impact.

“This hidden cost of climate change is finally illuminated, and the vision this paper shows us is a very ugly future for wildlife and for people.”

所有跟帖: 

I doubt that covid pandemic is due to “zoonotic spillover”. -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 08:45:34

not sure, but makes sense -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 10:18:34

啥意思?解釋一下。 -楓林曉- 給 楓林曉 發送悄悄話 楓林曉 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 11:34:10

我表達能力太差,隻能意會:) -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 14:26:30

以前隻在動物圈流行的病毒,從動物圈溢出到人畜共患。 -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 15:25:11

60%的人類病毒,來自動物。 -楓林曉- 給 楓林曉 發送悄悄話 楓林曉 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 16:54:42

獅子是草原老大,獅子咬死鬣狗卻不吃,鬣狗可以消化非常腐爛的肉,腐肉所帶的致命病菌可以與鬣狗共生,獅子可能會因此喪命, -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (89 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 15:31:29

小蝙蝠長得太嚇人了,:) -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 08:46:29

一般的蝙蝠除了翅膀,身體很象老鼠, 但老鼠的牙是素食動物的牙, 這蝙蝠尖牙帶倒鉤, 妥妥的肉食者 -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 09:03:33

也不對,吃肉的也需要嚼,這牙齒形狀適合撕扯或咬破後吸血 -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 15:36:50

查了查,bats多麽神奇,翅膀小到十幾厘米,大到170cm: -妖妖靈- 給 妖妖靈 發送悄悄話 妖妖靈 的博客首頁 (17821 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 19:19:15

大到170cm的不是bat, 是vampire -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 19:30:51

森林覆蓋都無法逆轉,何談氣候變化。僅僅是每年失去的森林麵積,所帶來的CO2增長,都控製不住,談什麽氣候穩定? -楓林曉- 給 楓林曉 發送悄悄話 楓林曉 的博客首頁 (1192 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 08:55:10

我看到的發展的終點是資源耗盡,人類為爭奪最後生存空間自相殘殺, 經濟發展是呈幾何級數的上升,環境惡化也是 -移花接木- 給 移花接木 發送悄悄話 移花接木 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 09:53:13

Elon musk: 地球人口過剩是假象。 -楓林曉- 給 楓林曉 發送悄悄話 楓林曉 的博客首頁 (531 bytes) () 04/28/2022 postreply 17:22:18

啥?那他還去什麽火星啊?LOL -盈盈一笑間- 給 盈盈一笑間 發送悄悄話 盈盈一笑間 的博客首頁 (0 bytes) () 05/03/2022 postreply 18:22:06

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