Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Blog #3, Can climate change bring disease with it?

             In this weeks article put out by The Washington Post, the story involved two global issues that I have heard plenty about, but not before together. As Dominic Basulto tells us in "The weird way that climate change could lead to new disease outbreaks around the world", there is speculation that the recent global warming could increase the commonalty of infectious disease around the world. The logic behind this thought is that with the changes in climate, the ecosystem will change as well potentially putting humans into contact with new pathogens. These pathogens could lead to a rise in vector-borne disease (such as malaria), as they spread to more temperate climates. This is scary considering people in Europe and the US could be at risk for disease typically only seen in tropic, or sub-tropical climates. Would the post-industrial nations such as America be prepared for a possible influx of contagions? If this is in fact possible, it would apply a lot of support to those working towards saving the planet through reducing the human responsible contributions to the planet warming. Daniel Brooks of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says “We have to admit we’re not winning the war against emerging diseases,” when explaining what he thinks would be a good place to start in preventing a disease spread. He adds that scientists are not prepared for new pathogens, and not understanding their biology. By understanding where they could come from and the evolutionary relationships to see what species could carry a potentially deadly disease, Brooks thinks we can have a head start if such an epidemic was to ever happen.

Alex Rogers, 2/18/15 8:32 pm.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/02/18/the-weird-way-that-climate-change-could-lead-to-new-disease-outbreaks-around-the-world/

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