According to a study published by nature review predicted. This will increase the risk of new viruses infecting humans in multiple ways, giving way to multiple pandemics in the near future, the study warned.
Several researchers have attributed the Covid19 virus to zoonotic transmission – passing of a previously unknown virus (Coronavirus in this case) from a wild animal to a human.
Study co-author Colin Carlson, a global change biologist also at Georgetown, said climate change “is creating countless hotspots of future zoonotic risk – or current zoonotic risk – in our backyard. We need to recognize that climate change is going to be the biggest upstream driver of disease emergence, and we need to build health systems that are ready for it.”
Here’s what the study predicts about climate change and species-hopping viruses:
1. As the temperature rises, many animal species will abandon their place of origin and move to cooler lands where they will encounter many other new species for the first time. This will result in transmission of the virus among mammals, according to the study.
2. An increase in viruses jumping between species will trigger more epidemics like the Covid-19 pandemic, posing a serious threat to human and animal health, the study warns.
3. Hotspots for the spread of the virus will be regions with species-rich ecosystems (especially regions in Africa and Asia) and regions densely populated by humans – India and Indonesia.
4. The transfer of viruses and pathogens from animals to humans will take place in densely populated areas of the world.
5. This process has likely already begun and will continue even if the world acts quickly to reduce carbon emissions and poses a major threat to animals and humans, the researchers said.
6. Considered part of the origins of Covid-19, bats are believed to be reservoirs of the virus and will go through the transmission of the virus regardless of climate change.
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