“Less than 50 years left”: US scientists predicted the timing of the emergence of new pandemics

Global warming, which scientists predict, increases the risk of new pandemics. So say the experts of the journal Nature., who believe that almost 50 years remain before the onset of terrible events.

“Global warming is radically changing all the ecosystems of the Earth. We have found that climate change will lead to the emergence of a dangerous new mechanism for the spread of diseases carried by migratory mammals. This process has probably already begun, ”said Gregory Albury, a researcher at Georgetown University in the USA.

Pathogenic microorganisms move to new places along with the “hosts”, which pass from animals to humans.

Of the 10,000 or more species of mammalian viruses that can infect humans, most circulate only among wild animals. But by 2070, if temperatures continue to rise at the predicted rate, there will be about 15,000 new cases of “viral exchange” between different species. This process creates conditions that “trigger” the evolution of viruses and increase the likelihood of transmission of previously unknown diseases from animals to humans.

This process can become especially intense in the densely populated territories of Africa and Asia, which have more than once become hotbeds for the emergence of new dangerous diseases, such as COVID-19, which continues to collect its victims.