Nature: Climate change will boost viral outbreaks

Over the next 50 years, climate change could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals, according to a study published in Nature. The research predicts that many of these transmissions will happen when species end up together in cooler locales as temperatures rise. And it projects that this will occur in species-rich ecosystems at high elevations, particularly in areas of Africa and Asia, and in areas that are densely populated by humans, including Africa’s Sahel region, India and Indonesia. “This work provides us with more incontrovertible evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker,” says disease ecologist and co-author Gregory Albery. Click on the image to learn more.