Global warming bringing pathogens back! Ancient pathogens preserved in northern permafrost Russia for millennia they can resurface. This is because as global temperatures rise, scientists warn, they put humanity at risk of diseases never seen before.
Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist and professor emeritus at the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine, is one of the few scientists in the world who has studied “zombie viruses” in Siberian permafrost. He warned that they may be present in Russia’s frozen soil in “very large numbers and diversity.”
In a 2022 study, co-author Claverie confirmed the infectious potential of 13 more viruses after living frozen in deep permafrost for more than 48,500 years.
While some of the newer diseases resting in the Russian Arctic can trigger known illnesses, such as smallpox, whose effective vaccine has been around for more than two centuries, scientists have much less understanding of those found in deeper permafrost layers more than 50,000 years old. due to technical limitations in achieving them. The greatest threat, however, may lie much deeper in the frozen earth.
Global warming and the risks in permafrost
Scientists cannot predict when these permafrost viruses might resurface. The real risk, they say, comes not just from the accelerated thaw of permafrost itself, but also from the increasing ease of access to the Arctic.
Despite scientists’ warnings, the issue of zombie viruses is not widely discussed in Russia. As a result, the risks associated with these viruses may be underestimated, raising doubts about the need to abandon Russian settlements in the Arctic.
Source: Atrevida
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