Climate Change Triggers Millions of years Old Virus; Scientists Fear Disaster
The icebergs of the Arctic are melting due to global warming. Scientists are saying that many deadly old viruses are present in this area.
Many of them are more dangerous than the Coronavirus. Though these viruses were in a frozen state, the melting ice is making them active. As a result, the world may face significant danger shortly.
The UK-based influential news outlet “The Independent” published a special report on the issue on 5th July. What is happening now in the Arctic region is very disappointing, the report said.
The maximum temperature in Siberia in the last 15 days was 38 degrees Celsius. Many places are facing scorching heat.
The temperature is causing a large amount of carbon dioxide to be dispersed in the weather. This is causing severe damage to the climate.
The temperature of the earth is increasing a lot. As a result, the frozen viruses in the Arctic may become active again.
The scientists are assuming that these viruses were frozen and hidden in the icebergs. Some of them are thousands of years old and even millions of years past.
Because of the rapid global warming, these primitive viruses are being active for the first time. When these viruses are freed from the frozen state in nature, they fall into the river and mix with oxygen.
Jean-Michel Claverie, a virus expert at Aix Marseille University, told Unearthed, an investigative news outlet for Greenpeace, “These viruses could survive deep in a frozen region, and could be regenerated.
Dr. Chantal Abergel of the same organization said, “We’ve been able to revive a 30,000-year-old virus from ancient frozen specimens. However, we have not been able to revive the previous virus.”
On the other hand, researchers informed that there are many deadlier viruses in this world than Coronavirus. And they might spread very quickly.
Earlier, an epidemic had occurred from 1918 to 1919. The influenza virus killed about 50 million people worldwide at that time.
If these powerful viruses spread at present, they would reach all over the world in just 36 hours and kill about 60 million people.
A former head of the World Health Organization had expressed this concern several months ago. The warning was given in a research report titled ‘A World at Risks’ by The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB).
GPMB released their research report in September last year. At that time, the US-based Daily Mail reported that GPMP researchers said avian influenza was likely to spread like Ebola, Zika, or Dengue.
That’s why the research report called on world leaders to take the issue seriously and make all preparations to prevent such an epidemic.
The study was led by Al Had Aaj C, former head of the World Health Organization and former prime minister of Norway. He is currently serving as the Secretary-General of the GPMB.
Earlier in 2016, a 12-year-old child died of an unknown disease in the Siberian region of Russia. Another 115 people from the area were admitted to the hospital in a short period. As it turned out, they were all infected with deadly bacteria, Bacillus Anthracis or Anthrax.
Experts found that a reindeer had died in 1941. The disease spread from the deer that died 75 years ago. As the weather got warmer, anthrax melted in the icy soil or permafrost.
(Permafrost is the thin layer of soil associated on the ice glacier, whereon Iceland peoples cultivate their crops, vegetables, fruits and build their houses).
In 2015, researchers in China and the United States discovered 26 new strains of the virus from melting snow in Tibet. The results of the study were published on a website called Biorev.
It was published that researchers dug a 164-foot hole and collected two specimens from a glacier of 1,500 years old. Later, they tested in the laboratory and found a total of 33 types of viruses. Of which 26 viruses have never been seen before.
With the rise in global temperatures, the ice in the northern hemisphere, including Tibet and the polar regions, is continuously melting.
Studies have shown that all the primitive viruses, bacteria, and other deadly pathogens survive in these ice layers. Most of which can challenge the modern medical system. The human body’s immune system is not familiar with these viruses either.
