Melting ice, in addition to human corpses exposed, the world also faces more terrifying dangers
The threat may be even more serious than we realize. And it has nothing to do with the ecosystem.
Climate change is melting the glaciers of Mount Everest, revealing human remains that had been buried for decades. Hundreds of people have died trying to climb the mountain since the 1990s, and their remains are being exposed as the planet warms.
But melting ice is not just a problem for Mount Everest; it is a problem that is widespread around the world. Since the early 20th century, permanent glaciers have been melting at an increasing rate, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.
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Human remains appear on Everest. |
Take Glacier National Park, which had 150 glaciers in 1910, but now has fewer than 30. Or Greenland, an island that has always been covered in ice, which is slowly melting, with the ice melting coming earlier and earlier each year.
As the ice melts, buried remains are gradually revealed. On Everest, they are the bodies of the unfortunate. But in many other places in the world, things are more serious, as what is revealed are diseases from ancient times.
A 30,000-year-old virus has been found in Arctic permafrost, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2015. Scientists are concerned that rising temperatures could revive deadly ancient pathogens.
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But the melting ice exposed more than just human remains. |
This is entirely plausible. According to Jean-Michel Claverie, a biologist at Aix-Marseille University (France), viruses from the time humans first appeared can also be revived in the Arctic. In northern Russia, there are traces of Neanderthals that existed 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. They lived there, got sick, died and were buried under the permafrost.
In February 2017, NASA also found bacteria more than 50,000 years old in a Mexican mine. Despite not seeing sunlight for tens of thousands of years, these bacteria are somehow resistant to 18 common antibiotics today.
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Melting ice also revives many ancient bacteria. |
"The odds of ancient bacteria resurrecting and infecting modern humans are unknown, but they do exist. They can be treated with antibiotics, but they can also be extremely dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. And they can be viruses," Claverie shared.
"If ancient bacteria come into contact with humans, the immune system will not be prepared. That is a real danger."