Scientists Predict Global Warming Will Lead to Spread of Disease

The Wildlife Conservation Society recently issued a list it called the Deadly Dozen, 12 wildlife diseases or pathogens the organization says could spread into new regions as a result of global warming. The list includes cholera, the Ebola virus, plague, Rift Valley fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and yellow fever. Some of the diseases only affect wildlife, some affect humans and some affect both, also on the Deadly Dozen list, the H5N1 avian flu strain. The heating, cooling, wetness patterns can affect the extent to which these diseases grow and spread.The Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's William Karesh says, that infectious diseases have the potential to spread with increasing temperatures and fluctuating precipitation, caused by global warming. These diseases can wipe out animals that are sensitive to changes in their current environment, and as well harm the live stock that we depend on for food consumption.


The idea that humans them self, their means of meat consumption, and wild animals are going to be at risk is something that is hard to grasp. With the fact that species can be wiped out, livestock can become much more expensive, these are things that can not be reverse and cannot be looked over anymore. Our way of living as well as other species is at risk and needs to be taken into thought.

http://voanews.com/english/2008-10-08-voa12.cfm