Scientists have long warned that our warming world could cause more diseases from wildlife to spill over to humans and spread around the world. Now, a study published this month in the journal Science of the Total Environment makes the case that climate change played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research, which comes from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, explains that climate change-related temperature increases, more sunlight, and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (affecting plant and tree growth) have expanded bat-friendly forest habitats in Myanmar, Laos, and southern China — where SARS-CoV-2 may have originated. According to the work, 40 bat species have moved into the southern Chinese Yunnan province in the past century, bringing 100 more types of bat-borne coronaviruses to the area.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, “nearly 75 percent of all new, emerging, or re-emerging diseases affecting humans at the beginning of the 21st century are zoonotic,” meaning they originated in animals. And bats carry more than their fair share of pathogens that could infect us. Each bat species hosts an average of 2.7 coronavirus strains. Their presence is closely correlated to the number of these spike-studded viruses found in an area — which could mutate and infect humans.
