Is Global Warming Unleashing New Diseases?
By Rishi Ganesh
2020 is a year that has both been hated on and joked about by the public, being described in a variety of ways from a “real-life game of Jumanji” to a “perpetual emergency”. With new dangers such as coronavirus, the “murder hornets”, and the Australian wildfires appearing earlier on in the year, it seems like a worldwide event is popping up monthly, ready to terrorize humans.
But we might not be done yet.
As global warming continues to go on, albeit slowed by the pandemic, it is melting ice caps near the poles of the Earth, thawing out perfectly preserved bacteria and viruses that could be previously undiscovered, able to attack human immune systems with no resistance as nothing similar to them has ever been found. For this reason, permafrost viruses may be some of the worst possible microbes in terms of human health.
Even scarier, these dangers have already begun to surface and devastate nearby populations. In August of 2016, at least 20 people were infected (with 1 death) by anthrax in the middle of Siberia, a region known for its notoriously cold temperatures. Due to these cold temperatures, permafrost is a common sight in this part of the world, and with it, it brings the element of danger: hidden inside the ice, invisible, ready at any moment to cause death. When this permafrost melts, it thaws the microbe inside, causing outbreaks like these seemingly out of nowhere. This element of surprise is an added factor: if you don’t realize it’s already in you, it may become too late.
However, these preliminary layers of permafrost are usually harboring bacteria that humans have seen before, and in summer, these may melt naturally, causing small outbreaks from time to time. However, the real problem lies in global warming. As greenhouse gases continue to be trapped inside the ozone layer of the earth, a cycle is continuing that will gradually melt the permafrost’s older, deeper layers. The problem that arises here is a double-edged sword: not only do more, older, and more unknown pathogens get released into the environment, but the permafrost itself will contribute to global warming.
How is this even possible, though?
Well, it’s simple:
Permafrost isn’t a big sheet of ice. In fact, it’s mostly frozen sediment, which has been piled on in layers. The older the layer, the deeper it goes. However, there’s more than just sediment. Besides the microbes that get trapped in the icy ground, dead organisms get pushed down eventually, often becoming the source of some of the diseases, like the anthrax outbreak. These dead animals undergo a transformation that changes them into a raw element: carbon. Under the intense pressure, the animals are compressed into carbon, usually in the form of natural gas or methane.
This melting, coupled with negligent companies, can even cause catastrophic oil spills, as in May of this year, a massive Russian oil spill occurred, spilling over 23,000 tons of fuel into the surrounding area. The effects are easily apparent and devastating: doing some digging, I noticed that the entire nearby lake had been turned a rust-red as a result of the spill. The situation escalated so much that the area was put into a state of emergency by Vladimir Putin and put the future of Arctic oil production into question.
So while the diseases are dangerous, the direct environmental effects stemming from global warming are far worse, and this is just exemplified in the permafrost. Diseases like these only affect the surrounding local area, and are usually easy to contain. Pollution, on the other hand, is worldwide, difficult to get under control, and has potentially wide-reaching, snowball effects that can completely destroy our environment. So while 2020 may be a massive game of “Jumanji”, we can do our part to lessen the impact and prevent the next roll of the dice from happening.
If you would like to read further, here are some links to sites that go in-depth on the issues. Thanks for reading!
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up
