How to help viruses live longer and kill more of us

Illness is like gambling. It’s all about statistics. The longer you stand near a virus/bacteria/fungus, or whatever, the higher are your chances of contracting it. So what if the air we breathe becomes ever more virus-friendly, helping them to live longer and infect more people? No, we hadn’t thought of that either. But read this CO₂ boosts airborne Viruses from Nature Briefings:

Carbon dioxide is often used as a proxy for healthy air — such as when CO₂ monitors are deployed to determine COVID risk. Now it seems that high levels of CO₂ actually help viruses to survive in the air. Using an innovative instrument to study airborne pathogens in unparalleled detail, researchers determined that CO₂ appears to help keep the particles we exhale at a pH-level that is more hospitable to viruses. “By increasing the CO₂ in the air, we’re getting rid of a natural means by which viruses become inactivated,” said environmental chemist Allen Haddrell, who led the new work. “It’s fascinating, but it’s also horrifying.”STAT | 10 min read

The link from Stat, by the admirable Megan Molteni is so good that we’ve provided a double link [1]

Are all crises interlinked? We’ve run other blogs here suggesting, for example ,the link between habitat destruction and the release of new infectious diseases. How the floods brought on by global warming have acted as huge artificial vectors for old diseases like malaria. Or even that a steady rising background level of CO₂ could have disastrous consequences for health (LSS passim) This is just a further indication that this gloomy thought may be right. But any parent or grandparent reading this would do well to find out more.

[1]https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=2a53b9910b-nature-briefing-d

#global warming #climate change #disease #public health #virus #bacteria

If the Gulf Stream collapses, you won’t need ice in your Gin and Tonic

According to the American writer Gore Vidal, one must choose between two missions in life. Either to Comfort the Afflicted; or to Afflict the Comfortable. Now, generally speaking, the Daily Mail is normally very much on the side of the Comfortable. Hardly a bunch of Islington Green Remoaner Marxist Liberals, you might say. So when they publish something which might in some way be slightly comfort-afflicting, we know it’s been through a pretty fine toothcomb first. And today we present just such a story by their admirable Jonathan Chadwick called The Real Life Day After Tomorrow. Not only does it speculate that the warming currents of the North Atlantic might collapse, plunging us into a new Ice Age. But there is a chance that it might happen rather soon. [1]

Most people know that the reason that Western Europe is tolerably warm is due to the fact that certain ocean currents move vast quantities of heat up from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to these otherwise benighted shores. Thanks to global warming and melting ice caps, those currents could switch off as early as next year. We cannot hope to improve on the excellent explanations and top notch, easy-to-understand graphics in Jonathan’s article. But we could beg you to look at some of the comments. and the squeals and howls of outrage from those whose weltenschauung is horribly imperilled by Jonathan’s words. Denial, evasion and getting shouty are common psychological defence mechanisms of people who are often uncertain of their own case. Blaming the messenger can be another; although we are all guilty of that.

Perhaps the latter was on display in the case of climate scientist Michael Mann, who, because of his scientific work, became the subject of unpleasant personal attacks from those who objected to his findings. To us it all seems a bit reminiscent of what happened to Galileo in the 1640s. Fortunately Mann has won damages from some of his adversaries , and this may buy back some space for objective debate in some areas of science. We wait to see. Whatever happens, those who prefer to deny, for whatever reason, should remember. Reality, be it economic, physical or logical, will eventually come round to charge a price. The longer you leave it, the higher that price will be.

[1]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13073449/Gulf-Stream-plunging-Europe-deep-freeze.html

[2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00396-y?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=0f1db6493c-briefing-dy-20240212&utm_medium=email&utm_term=

#jonathan chadwick #climate change #global warming #ice caps #AMOC #climate denial

Attack of the Killer Zombie Virus

Sounds like one of those old 1950s B movie titles, doesn’t it? But according to Robin McKie of the Observer, the threat is all too real.[1] According to Robin:

Humanity is facing a bizarre new pandemic threat, scientists have warned. Ancient viruses frozen in the Arctic permafrost could one day be released by Earth’s warming climate and unleash a major disease outbreak, they say.

No, despite our apparent credentials gained in monitoring the medical and science newsfeeds, we didn’t see this one coming either. We were more concentrating on the day that all that methane locked up in the permafrost spills out, and propels us all back to the Great Permian Extinction.[2]

And before you go, remember this. Firstly even the best antibiotics in the world will be of no use against viruses. Secondly, these viruses are likely to be of unknown types, and it will take time to run up meaningful vaccines against them. And above all, don’t think it won’t happen-remember what they were saying about global warming only twenty years ago?

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/21/arctic-zombie-viruses-in-siberia-could-spark-terrifying-new-pandemic-scientists-warn

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

#permafrost #climate change #global warming #virus #pandemic #vaccine #antibiotic