COVID Booster: climate change and bungling politicians
Five things science learned about COVID last week.
Did climate change help SARS-CoV-2?
A new study published in the journal
Science of the Total Environment has provided the first evidence of how climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses, by driving growth of bats’ preferred forest habitat.
“Understanding how the global distribution of bat species has shifted as a result of climate change may be an important step in reconstructing the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak,” says the University of Cambridge’s Robert Beyer, first author of the study.
Last week, Lisa Johnson wrote about
the environmental halo around the term natural gas and how its largely positive image might have something to do with its name. Here are some of your responses.
Douglas Baker wrote, Thank you very much for this article. We heated two homes, for 30 years, with natural gas furnaces. We then built green 10 years ago and installed a heat pump instead. But we kept our gas range (I love cooking with gas). Your article has given me very serious pause for thought. I never really thought of natural gas in terms of methane. This needs to be put out there more emphatically.
Published 5 February 2021
Global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses, by driving growth of forest habitat favored by bats.
Science of the Total Environment provides the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study has revealed large-scale changes in the type of vegetation in the southern Chinese Yunnan province, and adjacent regions in Myanmar and Laos, over the last century. Climatic changes including increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide - which affect the growth of plants and trees - have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland. This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.
E-Mail
IMAGE: Estimated increase in the local number of bat species due to shifts in their geographical ranges driven by climate change since 1901.
The zoomed-in area represents the likely spatial. view more
Credit: Dr Robert Beyer
Global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses, by driving growth of forest habitat favoured by bats.
A new study published today in the journal
Science of the Total Environment provides the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
LA한국문화원, 버추얼 라이브 한국 무용 강습 및 댄스 필름 강연 heraldk.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldk.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.