Name: Here's How Climate Change May Have Played a Role in The Emergence of COVID-19
Brand: sciencealert.com
SKU: sciencealert-com-25
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Here's How Climate Change May Have Played a Role in The Emergence of COVID-19

preview

If last year's fueled megafires and the global have taught us anything, it's how interconnected we all are with each other and . Now, we have some early hints that both climate change and the cause of the pandemic may also be intertwined – through bats.Bats have a notorious ability to . While their have been a blessing for them – allowing these airborne mammals to thrive around the world – it's a curse for the rest of us, as they carry these with them wherever they go.Now, a new study found that as the climate has warmed over the last century, the increase of sunlight, carbon dioxide, and changes in precipitation converted southern China's tropical shrublands to savannas and woodland – prime habitat for bats. And over 40 new bat species moved in."Understanding how the global distribution of bat species has shifted as a result of climate change may be an important step in reconstructing the origin of the outbreak," zoologist Robert Beyer from Cambridge University.To investigate this, Beyer and colleagues used data on the world's vegetation, temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, and the vegetation requirements of the world's bat species to construct a map of their distributions in the early 1900s. They then compared this to today's distributions of species."As climate change altered habitats, species left some areas and moved into others – taking their viruses with them," Beyer. "This not only altered the regions where viruses are present, but most likely allowed for new interactions between animals and viruses, causing more harmful viruses to be transmitted or evolve."Three out of four emerging infectious diseases in people are zoonotic diseases – they . And coronaviruses compose over . The building blocks of the 2002 SARS pandemic were found , and now their bodies are prime suspects of having brewed the precursors of .Between them, the 40 relatively recent migrant bat species to China's Yunnan province carry more than 100 types of coronaviruses. suggests the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 comes from . Most of these coronaviruses can't infect us though. And now some species of bats are for other species unintentionally wreaking havoc upon us, even though these animals play crucial roles in our ecosystems. depend on bat pollination (like bananas, mangos, and agave), other plants , and some species keep insects in check (including pesky, disease-spreading mosquitoes) by devouring them. But our relentless march further and further into remaining natural habitats, through processes, like deforestation, that also drive climate change, and therefore our chances of encountering their viruses. Degraded habitats also of the animals within them, providing more chances for viruses to mutate into something that can leap across species barriers."Among threatened wildlife species, those with population reductions owing to exploitation and loss of habitat shared more viruses with humans," a last year.Beyer and team caution that we don't yet know the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2, so their inferences are not yet conclusive and further studies based on different vegetation and using different models are required to corroborate their findings. Other variables that possibly impact bat distributions, like invasive species and pollution, also need to be investigated.And while correlation doesn't equal causation, a growing body of research does suggest of pathogens infecting new hosts. We even has been associated with environmental disruptions that led to emerging infectious diseases."The fact that climate change can accelerate the transmission of wildlife pathogens to humans should be an urgent wake-up call to reduce global emissions," biogeographist Camilo Mora from the University of Hawai'i, Manoa.To reduce these risks Beyer and colleagues strongly recommend introducing measures to limit human and wildlife interactions, including imposing strong regulations on wildlife hunting and trade, discouraging wildlife-dependent dietary and medicinal customs, and establishing strict animal welfare standards on farms, markets, and transport vehicles. To do this we must consider the socio-economic needs that drive these practices they note in their paper.It is also to keep species healthy, a measure that can also ."Given the possibility raised by our analysis that global greenhouse gas emissions may have been a contributing factor in the SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, we echo calls for , including as part of COVID-19 ," the team urges.This research was published in the .

If last year's fueled megafires and the global have taught us anything, it's how interconnected we all are with each other and . Now, we have some early hints that both climate change and the cause of the pandemic may also be intertwined – through bats.Bats have a notorious ability to . While their have been a blessing for them – allowing these airborne mammals to thrive around the world – it's a curse for the rest of us, as they carry these with them wherever they go.Now, a new study found that as the climate has warmed over the last century, the increase of sunlight, carbon dioxide, and...

public

Tessa Koumoundouros is Journalist and editorial assistant at ScienceAlert. She is fascinated by all living things, so it’s no surprise she mainly writes about biology, health, and the environment.  Tessa has contributed behind the scenes at The Conversation and the Climate Council, and her science reporting has been published by Lateral Magazine. She holds a Bachelor of Science with honors, majoring in zoology and genetics, and a Masters in Science Communication. She also worked as an exotics veterinary nurse, before joining the ScienceAlert editorial team in 2018.  She is an accomplished illustrator and designer, and puts her skills to work when curating incredible images for ScienceAlert’s social media, and designing infographics such as the This Week in Science series.  In her spare time, Tessa loves exploring wild places, stalking wildlife with a camera, reading, and drawing.

Here's How Climate Change May Have Played a Role in The Emergence of COVID-19

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS