For the first time since 1941, anthrax has hit Western Siberia, with 1,500 reindeer dying and 13 Yamal nomads being hospitalized including 4 children.
This is because unusually high temperatures (it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal) have melted permafrost containing the corpse of a reindeer that died of the bacteria 75 years ago.
Anthrax goes dormant when frozen, turning into a spore that reanimates when the temperature rises. Scientists estimate it can survive in this state for a minimum of 100 years.
In Siberia, dozens of herders have been relocated, a quarantine is in place and a state of emergency has been declared by the mayor.
This renews concerns that ancient viruses and bacteria could once again pose a threat, as the earth warms.
In 2014 scientists discovered that a Siberian virus, pithovirus sibericum, which lay dormant in permafrost for 30,000 years, became infectious again once thawed.
The article:
this is not a consequence of global warming i had ever envisioned but now it’s the scariest thing i’ve ever heard
In my Science, Technology, and Society course, climate change has pretty much taken over as the students’ greatest fear. When l first started asking what they thought was most likely to bring about the end of human civilization, they were mildly concerned about a diverse group of things. Kind of more rhetorically than realistically afraid. Climate change was only one, and many folks needed to be convinced it was a real threat at all.
Now it’s not only their prime worry – and a much greater perceived threat for the near future than any other – but it’s also starting to measurably happen. And many of their less common fears arise because of climate change.
Like ancient, slumbering plagues that reawaken with rising temperatures.
We’re living in interesting times…
Goldnwulf 