Climate change is causing permafrost soils containing viruses and bacteria that have been dormant for 2016 to melt, raising the possibility that diseases including bubonic plague, smallpox and Spanish flu could return to the atmosphere. In centuries, a 12-year-old Siberian boy died of anthrax poisoning, probably caused by a 75-year-old frozen reindeer carcass infected with the disease being exposed when permafrost melted during a heatwave. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising three times faster than in other parts of the world. Increased mining and drilling due to melting sea ice also raises the risk that such diseases could be unearthed.
Climate change is causing permafrost soils containing viruses and bacteria that have been dormant for centuries to melt, raising the possibility that diseases including bubonic plague, smallpox and Spanish flu could return to the atmosphere. In 2016, a 12-year-old Siberian boy died of anthrax poisoning, probably caused by a 75-year-old frozen reindeer carcass infected with the disease being exposed when permafrost melted during a heatwave. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising three times faster than in other parts of the world. Increased mining and drilling due to melting sea ice also raises the risk that such diseases could be unearthed.