UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have made southern China a hotspot for bat-borne coronaviruses, by driving growth of forest habitat favoured by bats.
A new study published today in the journal Science of the Total Environment provides the first evidence of a mechanism by which climate change could have played a direct role in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study has revealed large-scale changes in the type of vegetation in the southern Chinese Yunnan province, and adjacent regions in Myanmar and Laos, over the last century. Climatic changes including increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide – which affect the growth of plants and trees – have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland. This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.
The number of coronaviruses in an area is closely linked to the number of different bat species present. The study found that an additional 40 bat species have moved into the southern Chinese Yunnan province in the past century, harbouring around 100 more types of bat-borne coronavirus. This ‘global hotspot’ is the region where genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2 may have arisen.
“Climate change over the last century has made the habitat in the southern Chinese Yunnan province suitable for more bat species,” said Dr Robert Beyer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and first author of the study, who has recently taken up a European research fellowship at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.
He added: “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.”
To get their results, the researchers created a map of the world’s vegetation as it was a century ago, using records of temperature, precipitation, and cloud cover. Then they used information on the vegetation requirements of the world’s bat species to work out the global distribution of each species in the early 1900s. Comparing this to current distributions allowed them to see how bat ‘species richness’, the number of different species, has changed across the globe over the last century due to climate change.
“As climate change altered habitats, species left some areas and moved into others – taking their viruses with them. This not only altered the regions where viruses are present, but most likely allowed for new interactions between animals and viruses, causing more harmful viruses to be transmitted or evolve,” said Beyer.
The world’s bat population carries around 3,000 different types of coronavirus, with each bat species harbouring an average of 2.7 coronaviruses – most without showing symptoms. An increase in the number of bat species in a particular region, driven by climate change, may increase the likelihood that a coronavirus harmful to humans is present, transmitted, or evolves there.
Most coronaviruses carried by bats cannot jump into humans. But several coronaviruses known to infect humans are very likely to have originated in bats, including three that can cause human fatalities: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) CoV-1 and CoV-2.
The region identified by the study as a hotspot for a climate-driven increase in bat species richness is also home to pangolins, which are suggested to have acted as intermediate hosts to SARS-CoV-2. The virus is likely to have jumped from bats to these animals, which were then sold at a wildlife market in Wuhan – where the initial human outbreak occurred.
The researchers echo calls from previous studies that urge policy-makers to acknowledge the role of climate change in outbreaks of viral diseases, and to address climate change as part of COVID-19 economic recovery programmes.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous social and economic damage. Governments must seize the opportunity to reduce health risks from infectious diseases by taking decisive action to mitigate climate change,” said Professor Andrea Manica in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, who was involved in the study.
“The fact that climate change can accelerate the transmission of wildlife pathogens to humans should be an urgent wake-up call to reduce global emissions,” added Professor Camilo Mora at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, who initiated the project.
The researchers emphasised the need to limit the expansion of urban areas, farmland, and hunting grounds into natural habitat to reduce contact between humans and disease-carrying animals.
The study showed that over the last century, climate change has also driven increases in the number of bat species in regions around Central Africa, and scattered patches in Central and South America.
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Climate change made Hunter do hookers and blow.
Which landed him a $2,000,000 book deal. Enablers abound.
That’s slanderous – he never did blow. It was Meth
Stopped reading here:
““Climate change over the last century has made the habitat in the southern Chinese Yunnan province suitable for more bat species,” said Dr Robert Beyer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and first author of the study, who has recently taken up a European research fellowship at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany.“
If 0.7C of warming has made that big a difference, bats everywhere must have been on the brink of extinction during the Little Ice Age.
“world’s bat population carries around 3,000 different types of coronavirus, with each bat species harbouring an average of 2.7 coronaviruses “
Doesnt seem that small changes in temperature have made much difference, and while habitat does matter food supply matters more. And predators ?
If only China would convert to 100% wind power, all of those pesky bats would be liquidated by huge, whirling wind turbine blades. So in a sense, China’s unwillingness to fight climate change is directly responsible…
Biodiversity is the root of all evil.
According to this study cutting down tropical forest is good because it would reduce the # of bats. Eye roll. Alternative title, Climate change increases forests and bat habitat.
It went from sub tropical to even more sub tropically and fits very well with the “all the bugs are dying” meme.
So have labs tinkering with viruses.
Krishna, looks like bats are smarter, or maybe more honest that Climate Impact Researchers, because for certain bats went where there were more flying insects to eat.
more suitable for more species … they didn’t actually check to see if MORE bat species appeared …
Climate change over the last century ??? they mean weather or temperature … and the temperature in that region has not increased …
What’s more likely? Climate change or gain of function engineering? Follow the science.
Or skip the above hypothesis and just make it in a lab. Batty “research”.
Plus there is the fact that Anthony Fauci, et al., found ways around the Obama Whitehouse ‘pause” on gain of function research (including on bat coronaviruses) by moving such U.S. research to China through funding it at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4996883/
https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985
A WHO team is now on the ground in Wuhan and is “really getting somewhere.”
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/many-questions-after-who-team-visits-wuhan-virology-lab
Officially, WHO has still never admitted that the Wuhan virus came from China.
I find it odd that Peter Daszak of Eco-Health Alliance is on the WHO “investigative” team. Eco-Health Alliance became the intermediary through which WIV received U.S. funding.
He’s there to ensure that the culprits are never identified.
The WHO is in Wuhan right now, finding “No Evidence” that Covid came from a fully scrubbed Wuhan Institute of Virology.
I see where the Chicoms are demanding the WHO investigate the U.S. as the source of the Wuhan virus.
Mr. Abbott: Yes, and the inscrutable westerners have refused all chinese demands, for over a year, to let WHO team into the U.S. to investigate. s/
Climate change should have nothing to do with it.
I believe there was a post on WUWT last winter about the string in the virus which was not natural but man made.
All of that change from 0.7C of warming over the last 150 years?
These nut cases actually believe that the worst case scenarios from the broken models have already occurred.
They may not actually believe it, but if it helps them reach the goal of controlling you and taking your wealth, then they’ll say anything.
Must have been FAR MORE bats during the MWP !
Yeah, and it was cooling in China for several decades during that 100 year period. How does that figure into all their theories? Their theories are probably based on a fraudulent Hockey Stick chart.
It looks to me like they are assuming a whole lot that they don’t really have evidence for. Typical alarmist science.
You just don’t seem to understand. EVERYTHING bad is caused by global warming, or climate change, or whatever you want to call it.
“Studies”, these days need not involve science, or even data in some cases. The new #science is ‘expert’ opinion based and often driven by political activism.
So why should we believe anything we read?
See a phenomenon, make something up that could [potentially be defended with some rationale—no matter how stretched—and call it a study.
The climate changes, yes. Do humans have a role? Probably, some, of unknown degree but most likely small. Is every change caused by climate change? No, but it makes for a good narrative. Is every change bad? No. Much of N. America is no longer under thousands of feet of ice. That’s a good thing.
Studies these days are funded by governments (aka Uncle Sugar here in the USA) handing the paid bureaucratic scientists the desired results of the study in advance. direct payroll deposit to begin on the 15th or 30th of the month, whichever comes firsts. Official findings to follow.
The only thing climate change cannot do is reduce taxes.
Another climate change victim.
https://www.fox29.com/news/virginia-woman-dies-hours-after-receiving-covid-19-vaccine-health-officials-say
Climate change made the CCP develop the bio weapon virus in a lab.. Yeah, that’s the story…as good as any other
There’s a more direct connection…
The Trump Administration failed to continue the Climate Change energy policies of Obama-Biden to sabotage the U.S. economy. The CCP then focused on their bio-weapons program to accelerate U.S. collapse. Accidentally or intentionally, Covid-19 left the lab and the CCP ensured it spread as quickly as possible around the world.
Two facts make me doubt accidental release:
Be cautious of ascribing to some malice intent when simple ignorance will do.
One of Satan’s greatest successes was convincing Boomers that evil people were really just stupid.
Well, if by “Boomers” you mean conservatives, then I would agree with you.
For too long conservatives have laughed and scoffed at the insanities espoused by the radical Left, thinking their ideas were so crazy that sane Americans would never fall for them. As a result, conservatives have not pushed back on the insanity nearly enough, other than Trump, and now the insanity is governing our lives.
Conservatives should realize that radical Leftists are seriously deranged, and it’s not a laughing matter.
Our personal freedoms depend on successfully countering the radical Leftwing narrative. It’s not going to be easy because the radical Left controls propaganda organs of the State, the Leftwing News Media and Entertainment Media, and they control the schools, and now they control the federal government.
The radical Leftists are a clear and present danger to the personal freedoms of all of us, even those on the Left who are not radicals. Even the radicals, really. Many of them won’t be spared after an absolute power takeover. They better be careful what they wish for.
Conservatives need to up their game. Now.
I agree with Joel. The Taiwanese know more about what is going on in China than anyone, and they were warning about a new infectious virus around October 2019, and then they claimed that the Chinese military locked down all military facilities surrounding the city of Wuhan on about November 1, 2019.
That would seem to suggest that the Chinese officials were not aware of the danger of the virus until then. And it would suggest they were surprised by the event, which would suggest they did not deliberately release the virus into the population.
But, there is absolutely no doubt that the Chicoms turned this virus loose on the world not long after it was discovered. They shut down all internal traffic out of the areas around Wuhan, but they allowed international travelers to come and go without restrictions.
This was a deliberate act of war on the world by the Chicoms.
There were other things going on in Wuhan city around the time of the Wuhan virus appearance. Here’s good article describing the scene, and describing how the Elites in the United States are in bed with the Dictators in China.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-thirty-tyrants
The Thirty Tyrants
The deal that the American elite chose to make with China has a precedent in the history of Athens and Sparta
byLee Smith
February 03, 2021
“In Chapter 5 of The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli describes three options for how a conquering power might best treat those it has defeated in war. The first is to ruin them; the second is to rule directly; the third is to create “therein a state of the few which might keep it friendly to you.”
The example Machiavelli gives of the last is the friendly government Sparta established in Athens upon defeating it after 27 years of war in 404 BCE.
For the upper caste of an Athenian elite already contemptuous of democracy, the city’s defeat in the Peloponnesian War confirmed that Sparta’s system was preferable. It was a high-spirited military aristocracy ruling over a permanent servant class, the helots, who were periodically slaughtered to condition them to accept their subhuman status.
Athenian democracy by contrast gave too much power to the low-born. The pro-Sparta oligarchy used their patrons’ victory to undo the rights of citizens, and settle scores with their domestic rivals, exiling and executing them and confiscating their wealth.
The Athenian government disloyal to Athens’ laws and contemptuous of its traditions was known as the Thirty Tyrants, and understanding its role and function helps explain what is happening in America today.”
end excerpt
It looks like the Chicoms have made major inroads into undermining the United States by seducing our money-hungry Elites.
The New York Times had an article showing how the Chinese were using propaganda to fuel COVID-19 hysteria.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/technology/china-twitter-disinformation.html
Normally I don’t trust any news organization, except when they publish a story that goes against their chosen narrative. That is why I have reason to believe that story is true.
Random act of journalism
“Normally I don’t trust any news organization, except when they publish a story that goes against their chosen narrative. That is why I have reason to believe that story is true.”
Good thinking!
There is another consideration when contemplating “accidental release”.
The CCP stands to benefit substantially by releasing this virus, with these specific “properties”, at this specific time and place.
The virus kills the elderly, especially those with commodities at a very high rate, while sparing the young, and working age adults. China has 250+ million elderly, older than the retirement age. They have a baby boom entering the retirement ranks over the next two decades, straining an already strained system. The CCP will save 100s of $Billions a year, by slightly lower the life expectancy of retirees. See China Demographics in Wikipedia, and Ageing China Population.
It was released in Wuhan in time to infect soldiers attending the Military World Games. It was also circulating in the public for the New Years celebration which was attended by millions of people, many international travelers.
When many coincidences of low probability line up in time and location, it is highly unlikely to be a coincidence.
This does not mean it is a government conspiracy. A few people with the correct clearances could do this unilaterally based on direction from supervisors in positions of power. In a command and control system, you don’t need consensus.
That knob on the CO2 dial needs an “11” mark.
Interesting. In another study it was shown that blameshifting to “climate change” things primarily caused by human stupidity was lucrative, made people feel better about themselves, and did a good job of propping up a false, highly damaging ideology.
WEF’s opportunism for its long desired socialism now via its Great Reset. Those con artists are just seizing an unfortunate opportunity. Con artists everywhere have depended on calamities since the dawn of mankind.
Unfortunately most western national leaders are followers of the modern day National Socialist Klaus Schwab, including wrinkly old Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau. I wouldn’t be surprised if they attended the Davos meetings this year as well, but since they were held on line the public was not able to see or hear them being indoctrinated. Nice.
Heil Schwab!
The Covid-19 virus epidemic originated in Wuhan – a long way from the lands referred to in the Cambridge University paper. So I don’t think climate change, real or imagined, is particularly relevant, though full marks to the authors for somehow making the link
Matt Ridley has just now published a blog on possible origins of the Covid-19 virus which makes interesting reading. See http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/did-covid-escape-from-a-lab/
The idea is a bit batty.
Climate change, if ever, didn’t let increase the bat population, if ever, than the number of insects increased, base of bat’s nutrition.
In so far, the papers intention and conclusion is total BS, from it’s beginning to it’s end.
A typical “Potsdam paper”
Rarely have I read a bigger pile of bull crap. Total unadulterated propaganda.
UK “may” research in action, nuts
The bat cave got warmer.
“The bat cave got warmer.”
And then it got cooler, as the climate cycles up and down over a 100-year period. I’m betting that wasn’t taken into account by the authors. They are probably using a Hockey Stick.
Climate change fever still grips the UK
The urbanization of China has been called the greatest migration in the history of mankind. Rural farmers depend on wood and charcoal for heat and cooking. City dwellers depend largely on fossil fuels, directly or indirectly. As people move to the cities, the pressure on trees for fuel decreases. Thus, as happened in the USA — particularly in New England — as people abandoned marginal farms, trees came back and changed the landscape. The re-forestation of China probably has far less to do with the small changes in climate than it has to do with the land-use changes resulting from the migration to cities.
With an increase in trees, there was probably an increase in insects to feed bats. With more bats, insect disease vectors are better controlled. As always, there is a complex interplay between climate, vegetation, animals, and human land-use. The Simple Simon cultists do Greta one better. Greta claims she can see CO2. The cultists only see CO2. The cultists only see negative results from climate change. It is beyond their ken that a warming planet provides advantages.
Well said, from start to finish.
Thank You.
Solid theory. The bats of south central China around Guangdong where SARS-Cov-1 first appeared, were getting tired of the heat from climate change. Since these bats have become “richer” they had the means to vacation to Wuhan where it was cooler. While visiting a seafood market, that just happened to be a few blocks away from the only lab in China studying corona viruses, one of the bats sneezed on a yuan while paying for a fried chicken head and transmitted the first case of SARS-Cov-2 to an unsuspecting Chinese vendor. You can basically go ahead and publish the text books right under the section on how 2+2=5.
Yuanna bet?
“The region identified by the study as a hotspot for a climate-driven increase in bat species richness is also home to pangolins, which are suggested to have acted as intermediate hosts to SARS-CoV-2. The virus is likely to have jumped from bats to these animals, which were then sold at a wildlife market in Wuhan – where the initial human outbreak occurred.”
Goebbels would be proud.
one of the bats sneezed on a yuan while paying for a fried chicken head and transmitted the first case of SARS-Cov-2 to an unsuspecting Chinese vendor
I’d bet good money that nobody has ever strung together that exact sequence of words before.
2+2 is politically congruent (“=”) to 5
As regards the whiffling use of the phrase “may have driven” in the above article’s title, let’s cut to the facts and replace that with “the actions of the CCP definitely caused”.
Bats are being set up to be the “fall guys” in this story in order to complex it with “climate change”, whatever that phrase actually means.
One need only look to Zhengli-Li Shi, the Chinese “bat lady” virologist who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, using a variety of strains of viruses obtained from bats, to conduct dangerous “gain of function” research at the WIV, research that had earlier been outlawed in the US and other Western countries.
Here’s a nice article from Northeastern Illinois University’s Independent newspaper that is surprisingly good. There is hope in some young people.
https://neiuindependent.org/17104/arts-life/opinion-what-they-forgot-to-tell-us-about-previous-coronaviruses/
Scissor, great article on many accounts. Thanks 1×10^6.
The author has a good article on the vaccines also.
https://neiuindependent.org/17132/arts-life/the-rapid-emergence-of-covid-19-vaccines/
It’s a good article so far, I haven’t read it all yet. I saw this except:
“Intriguingly, Dr. Fauci as a director of NIAID/NIH published an official article “Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread” in the Virology Journal in 2005. The researchers that Dr. Fauci supervised in 2005, experimented with hydroxychloroquine and its effects on SARS-CoV- 1. The article confirms that the hydroxychloroquine was successful in treating all the strains of coronaviruses.”
Besides noting the dishonesty of Dr. Fauci and his current negative stance on hydroxychloriquine, it should be noted from the above, that HCQ is apparently effective on more than one variety of corona virus. This may come in handy in the future for new variants of the Wuhan virus or for completely new corona viruses.
So keep your hydroxycholoriquine in a safe place for possible future use.
And here’s an interestig item I saw about a possible new treatment for the Wuhan virus:
https://saraacarter.com/report-29-out-of-30-patients-with-serious-covid-19-cases-were-cured-in-days-with-new-israeli-drug/
“As regards the whiffling use of the phrase “may have driven” in the above article’s title, let’s cut to the facts and replace that with “the actions of the CCP definitely caused”.”
I like your version better!
We have definite evidence for your version. There’s no doubt the Chicoms deliberately spread this Wuhan virus to the rest of the world. Biological warfare. Cold-blooded.
And these cold-blooded, evil people have nuclear weapons.
The only way to deal with cold-blooded, evil people like this is to make sure they understand that if they were to precipitate some catastrophy, they would not personally survive the event.
Murderous dictators understand force. Murderous dictators will back down if they think you can kill them, and will kill them. That’s the psychology of Murderous Dictators.
Of course, sometimes you have to give a demonstration. Talk is cheap, the dictators say.
Was that before or after western journalists were told to leave China and local freelance reporters were jailed?
I guess this proves that two wrongs make a right !
bats + climate change = good propaganda.
Ain’t science wonderful …………………..
Climate Change turned me into a newt.
I got better…
This is serious.
Did you float?
Because we knows what that means