Climate change could "wake up" the Black Death

According to a professor from Oxford University, climate change could wake up old diseases and even the Black Death.

Higher global temperatures would melt layers of ice that store long-buried bacteria, which could spread disease and potentially cause new global pandemics.

Professor Peter Frankopan presented his speculative prediction at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on Friday, as reported by The Times.

The professor of world history first stated that there was "absolutely no chance" for the international community to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement consisting of to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit).

"If we take into account this change in degree, it is not difficult for the Maldives to go on vacation or to migrate, that's what happens when the permafrost unlocks and biological agents are buried for years. millennia. "

And because old bacteria would be released again into the Earth's ecosystems, there is a great risk that the world's population will be struck by diseases it can not manage.

Plague is the main of these diseases. The states of Frankopan spread in the Middle Ages, largely because of rising global temperatures.

"For example, in the 1340s, a 1.5 degree global warming movement, probably due to solar flares or volcanic activity, changes the cycle of Yersinia pestis," he said. Explain.

"This difference of a degree and a half allowed a small microbe to turn into a black plague."

According to Frankopan, such a possibility should be taken more seriously than rising sea levels or drought, especially because the Black Death wiped out between 75 and 200 million people in Europe in the 14th century.

"These are the things we should be extremely worried about," he said.

Although its warnings set the worst-case scenario for global warming, there are recent examples of melting permafrost posing a serious risk to people.

In 2016, a 12-year-old boy died and more than 40 people were hospitalized in Siberia after being infected with anthrax.

The anthrax had been released when high summer temperatures had melted permafrost, which had buried a deer for decades as a result of a previous outbreak of the dangerous bacteria.

Since this deer was killed by anthrax, its exposure caused the release of previously frozen bacteria in the water and soil of the region, where it subsequently entered the food chain.

As a result, more than 1,500 reindeer were infected and killed. Some of them were eaten by locals, but they were also contaminated.