A new study published in the journal Nature predicts that thousands of new viruses will jump from animals to humans in the coming decades due to climate change if global temperatures are not held under 2°C.
Climate change will cause 1000s of new viruses to jump from animals to humans, new study predicts
A new study warns that if global warming continues at its current pace, climate change will cause thousands of new emerging viruses and diseases to jump from animals to humans in the coming decades.
The dire prediction was published in the journal Nature on April 28, 2022, in a study entitled “Climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risk,” undertaken by researchers at Georgetown University, 9 News Australia reported.
The study predicts at least 15,000 new cross-species viral transmissions by 2070 if global temperatures are not maintained below 2 degrees Celsius. The study pinpointed Southeast Asia as one of several high-risk hotspots for viral outbreaks.
How will climate change affect the animal kingdom
According to researchers, as climate change impacts animal habitats, the warming temperatures will force animals to adapt to the changing environment. As part of adaptation, a mass movement of wild animals will occur. Scientists caution that this scenario is most likely already underway.
What this means is that it is more likely that wild animals will come into closer contact with humans or other animals that are already in contact with humans. As this happens, certain species will encounter one another for the first time, which will create unique opportunities for viruses to be transmitted from one species to another, researchers said.
How will climate change cause viruses to jump cross-species?
Researchers believe this will create a type of butterfly effect, and that within the next 50 years, an increasing number of diseases that have only been carried by animals will jump to humans. The most affected areas at the start will be Africa and tropical Asia, scientists say, especially those that are densely populated.
Researchers used computer-simulated models to envision how things would progress by the year 2070. The data suggested that the most likely “tropical hotspots of novel viral sharing” would be the Sahel, Ethiopian highlands and Rift Valley, India, eastern China, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
One key carrier and transmitter from the animal kingdom will be bats.
“Because of their unique dispersal capacity, bats account for the majority of novel viral sharing and are likely to share viruses along evolutionary pathways that will facilitate future emergence in humans,” the study authors wrote.
Additionally, the researchers noted simian species as another transmission source. In particular, how, in the past, the simian immunodeficiency virus jumped from monkeys to chimpanzees and gorillas, eventually facilitating the origins of HIV in humans.
And with the pandemic, how SARS-CoV spillover into civets allowed a bat virus to reach humans.
