Jakarta –
Ancient microbes frozen for thousands of years in the Siberian ice sheet are now melting due to climate change. Scientists warn that this could pose a ‘catastrophic’ threat to humanity.
Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie has warned that as global warming melts ice frozen tens of thousands of years before the start of civilization, ancient viruses that were frozen and then thawed could spread.
If an ancient disease killed ancient humans like Neanderthals, their frozen corpses could still harbor infectious viruses. Claverie said melting ice could reveal the virus.
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The viruses have been found in woolly giants, Siberian mummies, prehistoric wolves, and the lungs of Influenza victims buried in the Alaskan ice sheet. Scientists have also highlighted six frozen pathogens that they believe pose the greatest threat to humanity.
“With climate change, we are used to thinking of danger coming from the south,” Claverie told Bloomberg News, quoted by the Daily Mail.
“Now, we realize there may be danger coming from the north as the ice sheets melt and release microbes, bacteria and viruses,” he continued.
The threat of frostbite buried in the ice is real. A heat wave in Siberia in 2016 activated deadly anthrax spores that killed a child and thousands of reindeer.
Claverie’s team has previously revived giant viruses dating back 48,000 years. He has warned that there may be many more ancient viruses in the ice, some of which have the potential to infect humans.
Claverie’s team has focused for a decade on giant viruses found frozen in ice. This ‘giant virus’ is a type of pandoravirus that can infect amoebas.
A quarter of the northern hemisphere sits on permanently frozen ground known as permafrost, but much of the region is thawing as the world warms.
Researchers have previously warned that global warming and melting ice might give rise to smallpox-like diseases that freeze inside their victims, with some infectious particles being enough to revive the pathogen.
The earth’s temperature is now known to be 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, and scientists have warned that the Arctic or a region around the Earth’s North Pole will experience an ice-free summer in the 2030s.
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2023-10-18 04:33:28
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