London, Europe Brief News – The climate crisis will could catalyse the next deadly pandemic, experts have warned.
According to a 2022 study, over half (58 per cent) of known infectious diseases are aggravated by climate crisis.
The research – drawn from a review of more than 77,000 existing papers – paints a “terrifying” picture of the next few decades, warns lead author Camilo Mora.
“We are not going to go extinct, I don’t think. Instead, this is going to make our lives miserable,” he says.
“The disease crisis is like a meteorite hurtling towards us. Indeed, the meteorite is here.
“We cannot ignore it.”
From long-dormant pathogens unleashed by defrosting tundra, to millions of extra virus-carrying mosquitos, the risks will be severe.
Floods, fires and droughts push wildlife to seek resources elsewhere. Meanwhile, humans are encroaching on nature ever further, including by logging forests for pastureland and construction.
This dynamic leads to deadly emerging diseases, explains Professor Daniel Brooks, a professor emeritus of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.
In his 2019 book ‘The Stockholm Paradigm’, Brooks and colleagues explain how pathogens can easily colonise new hosts.
“Climate change alters the conditions of life for species, and when those changes exceed a species ‘comfort zone’, members of the species move away, seeking more livable conditions,” he says.
“By catalysing movement in general, climate change thus sets the stage for hosts to come into contact with pathogens to which they are susceptible but which they had never been exposed to before.”
