The first-ever evidence of a mechanism through which climate change could have had a direct role in the origin of SARS-CoV-2 the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic has been offered by a new study.
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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.
Climate change may have had key role in pandemic: study
Issued on:
05/02/2021 - 13:12 3 min
Paris (AFP)
Climate change may have played a key role in the transmission of the novel coronavirus to humans by driving several species of pathogen-carrying bats into closer contact, research showed on Friday.
The virus, which has killed more than two million people and caused unprecedented global disruption, is thought to have originated in bats in Southeast Asia.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge used temperature and rainfall data over the last 100 years to model populations of dozens of bat species based on their habitat requirements.
Climate change may have played a key role in the transmission of the novel coronavirus to humans by driving several species of pathogen-carrying bats into closer contact, research showed on Friday. The virus, which has killed more than two million people and caused unprecedented global disruption, is thought to have originated in bats in Southeast Asia. Researchers from the University of Cambridge used temperature and rainfall data over the last 100 years to model populations of dozens of bat species based on their habitat requirements. They found that over the last century, 40 species had relocated to southern China, Laos and Myanmar the area where genetic analysis suggests the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 first appeared.
Updated / Friday, 5 Feb 2021
16:19
Researchers say the changing climate and habitat destruction have driven virus-carrying species into ever closer contact with humans
Climate change may have played a key role in the transmission of the coronavirus to humans by driving several species of pathogen-carrying bats into closer contact, research shows.
The virus, which has killed more than two million people and caused unprecedented global disruption, is thought to have originated in bats in southeast Asia.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge used temperature and rainfall data over the last 100 years to model populations of dozens of bat species based on their habitat requirements.