Melting Arctic permafrost risks awakening slumbering pathogens not seen for nearly 50,000 years.
As warming accelerates the great thaw, these viral time capsules may re-emerge, for better or worse
“We’ve discovered intact ancient viruses frozen in the icy soil,” explains Dr. Jean-Michel Claverie, a French geneticist analyzing reanimated Siberian microbes. “If these unknown pathogens can infect humans, new outbreaks could occur as climate change liberates them.”
Img Credit: – OnlyMyHealth
While no signs yet suggest the tiny zombies can sicken people, Claverie warns worse viruses may lurk entombed. Genetic clues hint at poxes or antique herpes strains.
Dutch virologist Dr. Marion Koopmans echoes concerns over “sleeping” risks. “An ancient form of polio or other archaic diseases could potentially resurface,” she says.
But the germs themselves may not be the gravest fear. As the Arctic opens, the ensuing stampede to tap resources newly accessible as ice sheets retreat could pierce long-dormant depths. What might that disruption unleash?
“Mining and drilling operations may breach frozen zones keeping buried microbial threats at bay,” Koopmans cautions. “If we pierce the ice exposing layers locked since Paleolithic eras, out will come genies we can’t put back.”
Let’s hope our powers of prediction and prevention outpace whatever viral shadows slumber in the thawing earth as it yields up its ancient secrets.
